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 VXT Buzz Kill?
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Joined: December 2008 Posts: 1456 Location: Texas | I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts or suggestions to diagnose a problem I'm having with my VXT? It developed an annoying buzz on the open A string. No amount of fiddling with the bridge would eliminate it. I suspected that it was the nut, so I had a new nut cut and the frets leveled. That seemed to fix it, or so I thought. I took it on a trip, played it a lot, and it was perfect for a week or so. Sadly, now it's buzzing again. There is plenty of fret clearance, so I don't think it's fret-buzz after all. I'm now suspecting that it is actually coming from the Fishman Bridge itself. If I lay it down flat, I cant get any buzz, but when I pick it up to play it, it's there. It seems to be more dependent on the note played than the string it's played on. I'm thinking it could be some kind of sympathetic vibration at certain frequencies. I guess my next step should be to pull the bridge off to look for a loose wire or anything that could be vibrating? Has anyone ever experienced a problem like that with a Fishman bridge? I'm open to suggestions as to what to look for and/or how to eliminate it. (Other than playing flat on my back, although that would probably work...  ) Thanks! | ||
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Joined: January 2006 Posts: 5881 Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | Best I could do . . .
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Joined: December 2008 Posts: 1456 Location: Texas | You folks are terrific! Thanks for all the excellent suggestions. I had to put it aside for a little while, but I will try several of your ideas as soon as I get a chance and let you all know what, if anything, I find…
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Joined: December 2008 Posts: 1456 Location: Texas | Well, there WAS a photo there when I previewed it, let's try again: (VXTbridge.jpg) Attachments ----------------  VXTbridge.jpg (71KB - 0 downloads) | ||
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Joined: December 2008 Posts: 1456 Location: Texas | Has anyone ever pulled out the circuit-board in a VXT? If so, how do you do it? I can only find one tab/post that seems to be holding it in place. Am I correct in thinking that the pots are connected to the circuit board and therefore I will need to remove all the knobs/nuts on top of the guitar in order to pull out the circuit board? (I was about to try that anyway, but I figured I might as well ask first, in case anyone else has discovered a hidden secret holding it all together.)  Under the circuit board is one of the only reachable parts of this guitar that I have not been able to inspect to look for the source of the mysterious buzz. I suppose that there could be something in one of the chambered areas, but, short of an X-Ray, I don’t know how I could check there. I tried all of the suggestions above, plus quite a few more, without success. I checked all the tunas and the truss rod. I pulled out the humbuckers, added some foam under (and in) the battery compartment (long shot) checked the tightness of every screw and bolt I could get at (including the strap buttons and the jack.) I tried to dampen almost every part of the guitar I could reach trying to deaden the buzz, to no avail. And once again, I thought I had it figured out when I discovered more peeling chrome under the saddles. (Photo below.) I cleaned that up, but it still buzzed. then I made a temporary plastic insert to isolate the adjustable “legs” of the saddle from the base of the bridge where the chrome had peeled up. (photo below) It still buzzed. Then I wedged some dense foam between the suspect saddles to see if the saddles were vibrating against each other. (Photo below.) It still buzzed. It’s SO frustrating. I have only had this guitar for a few months. It didn’t buzz when I got it, nor after the first couple of string changes. I was truly smitten, what a great guitar! Then the buzz started, inexplicably. As I mentioned earlier, I assumed it just needed a new nut. which seemed to remedy the problem, but after a couple of trips on the road, it started buzzing again. The only information I have found on the internet is a few other people with similar problems with Fishman PowerBridges, (on other guitars,) but no remedies. I am still suspicious of the peeling chrome, it does seem feasible that some loose, but not visible, bit of plating somewhere on the bridge could be vibrating at that frequency. If so, buying an expensive replacement bridge that might end up doing the same thing in a couple of years is not a very appealing option. It's very disappointing to see chrome patches flaking off of a "high-end" bridge that can't be more than 5 years old. The guitar is otherwise in excellent condition, there's nothing to indicate that it was in a harsh environment of mistreated, but the bridge IS flaky, (in more ways than one.) I’ll pull the circuit board, but if I can’t find anything there, I’m running out of ideas. I may have to take a BFLG demerit and seek professional help (for the guitar, in this case at least.) And finally… I guess I should have originally started this thread in the Ovation Electric Guitar forum, so moderators, please feel free to move it if you prefer. (VXTa.jpg) (VXTb.jpg) (VXTc.jpg) Attachments ---------------- VXTa.jpg (78KB - 0 downloads) VXTb.jpg (75KB - 0 downloads) VXTc.jpg (80KB - 0 downloads) | ||
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Joined: September 2006 Posts: 10777 Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | You know that when you find the source of the buzz it will be something totally simple, right? Just checkin' | ||
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Joined: December 2008 Posts: 1456 Location: Texas | arthurseery - 2012-04-25 1:01 PM You know that when you find the source of the buzz it will be something totally simple, right? Just checkin' ...Inevitably, and extremely obvious too, I'm sure. I just wish I could figure it out sooner rather than later. Last night, in frustration/desperation I peeled off every loose bit of chrome plating (or whatever it is) on the bridge. About 30% of all the chrome peeled right off with little effort. It didn't stop the buzz, and now it looks AND sounds funky. | ||
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Joined: December 2008 Posts: 1456 Location: Texas | I just realized that I never posted the final solution that fixed the buzz on my VXT, so I thought that I should post an update to this thread in the interest of offering help to anyone who finds this thread in the future with a "search". (Yes Virginia, there is a "search" function on the OFC.) I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that after all the work I did tearing it apart, it eventually became obvious that I was looking in the wrong place, and blaming the Fishman Bridge unfairly… The buzz was noticeable, but subtle, at first, but it actually got much worse over the next month or so, until it became obvious that it was, in fact, fret buzz and not the Fishman Bridge at all. Apparently the guitar must have lived in a MUCH drier climate (and wasn't humidified) before I bought it and had it shipped to the high humidity of South Texas. It took a couple of months to settle down, after which it needed several frets reseated and leveled (apparently due to the wood soaking in the abundant moisture in our humid climate which slowly pushed up some of the frets.) After that, it just needed some slight tweaking and it played (and still plays) wonderfully. My biggest mistake was having the frets leveled just a few weeks after I got it. I never considered that it might take a couple of months to acclimate and stabilize, but apparently that was the case. Had it previously been kept in a properly humidified environment, I probably never would have had the problems I did. There's a lesson in there somewhere… (BTW, now that it's buzz-free, it's back to being one of my favorite guitars.) | ||
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Joined: December 2008 Posts: 1456 Location: Texas | |||
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