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Joined:
May 2013
Posts: 5
| Hi, I recently got a '75 balladeer from my grandmother that probably hadn't been played in 30yrs. Anyway, I got it all cleaned and oiled up with new strings etc and unfortunately the neck dips right around the 15th fret. There are some issues with the b string but the real problem is the hi-e.
I can get clean notes out of it on the first 2-3 frets and then from the 15th fret on. I messed around with the truss rod but that made the e play zero notes. To be honest I don't really know what I'm doing, but I'm a mechanically adept person. Maybe some of you could advise me or share some experiences that might relate to this issue? Should I be shimming up one side or should I put a new saddle in or what? I don't really have money to be paying someone else to fix this.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. |
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Joined:
October 2005
Posts: 4042
Location: Utah | Youtube will have hundreds of how-to videos of variable accuracy on setting up your guitar.
The first step is to acclimate/humidify it. Ideally you have 35% to 45% humidity year round in your home. If you live in a desert you should humidify for sure. Anyhow, if the guitar came from a different climate than where you are now, let it acclimate for a couple of weeks or so.
Next take 2 capos if you have them (or you can use a friends hands). Put a capo at the 1st fret and the 13th fret. Your strings now make a straight edge between the capos. At the 6th fret there should barely be a visible gap between the top of the fret and the bottom of each string. You can find specs on the internet for acoustic guitars. If the string just barely touches the fret it is too close and you need to loosen the truss rod a bit. If you can see a teeny tiny gap approximately the same as the thickness of the B or G string you are in the ballpark. Truss rod adjustments should be done slowly and in small amounts. About 1/4 to 1/2 turn max and then let it sit for several hours or a day. You can play it in the meantime, just don't make more of an adjustment than that in a day.
Once the truss rod is in the ballpark try playing it in your normal style. If you strum you might need more relief, which is more of a gap between the top of the 6th fret and the bottom of the string. You loosen the truss rod to get more relief. If you play gently fingerstyle you can get away with less relief. For now you're making sure you have enough relief.
Next check out every fret on every string. Play every note on the neck, listening for buzzing or a choked off sound. You may find random frets which are too high or are worn down, causing buzzing. Stewmac sells small very straight edges to check frets for being level, or you can eyeball it sometimes. If you find a string or two which buzz when playing in the same area over one or two or three frets, there is probably a high fret. Or you might see worn grooves in some frets which correspond to buzzing.
If a bunch of notes buzz above about the 12th fret it could be your saddle is too low. If the relief is properly adjusted already, the saddle is what controls the height of the strings above the upper frets. If the strings are a mile high crossing the 12th fret, your saddle is way too high. Add or subtract shims to get the height correct from the 12th fret and higher. The change at the 12th fret will be half of the change you make at the saddle. Remove a 0.020" shim under the saddle and you will get 0.010 lower action at the 12th fret.
The last part of the neck is the lowest few frets. The nut controls how low the strings are in the first 5 or 6 frets. If the nut is too high the strings will be very high going across these frets, and chords may sound out of tune because the strings bend out of tune when you fret them. If the nut is too low there will be buzzing on the first frets when playing open strings. Once you fret a note the nut is out of the picture, so if you don't get buzzing on open strings your nut is not too low (though it could still be too high). Filing nut slots is not difficult but you need decent files. It is easy to file just a tad too deep and then the nut is ruined.
Potential problems are a twisted neck or a neck with some kind of hump or gully. You can't get it to play well everywhere if these kinds of problems exist. Uneven, worn, or loose frets can cause localized buzzing or dead sounding notes. A qualified luthier might be needed to consult on these kinds of issues. |
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Joined:
May 2013
Posts: 5
| Wow, thats WAY better than anything I found online so far and I looked around a fair amount. I've been humidifying the guitar since I got it, about a month. I'll start with the capo thing tonight.
Thanks again for this post, I'll be coming back to it a lot I'm sure. |
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Joined:
May 2013
Posts: 5
| Heres an okish pic of what I'm dealing with. I'm sure the offending fret(s) could be filed down quite a bit as well.
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Joined:
April 2010
Posts: 823
Location: sitting at my computer | Isn't that what they call a "neck bump"? A bulge on the fretboard where the neck joins to the body. I've read that a neck reset is necessary to resolve those. ??  |
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Buzzing high-e
