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I would like to add that if your guitar has some electrical components inside, wires can sometimes rub against the interior of your guitar and cause buzzing. Simply using electrical tape to secure these wires will eliminate the buzzing sound when you play.
I may add that tuners can produce buzz if they are not tightly screwed to the headstock. Don't over tighten them, just make sure they're not loose. Also, very localized buzz on a single fret can mean either the fret is loose (needs to be set corretly in th efretboard are even sometimes glued in), or the fret is worn out and you need your frets leveled or even refretted. Check with your guitar tech.
I think I might have a very important trick to get rid of a buzzing guitar, that everyone can do at home and probably safe some money. If the guitar tends to be buzzing around the 12th fret, most of the time, it's because the neck has a slight curve downwards at this point, which lowers the action in this area so that the string touches the fret and starts buzzing. A lot of times, the reason for that is that the guitar is probably dried out. What happens is that (especially) the back of the guitar shrinks, as it's losing humidity. When it shrinks, it's pulling the neck downwards via the neck heel, which leads to the curve in the neck, as mentioned above. The remedy would be to buy or make yourself a guitar humidifier. From what I experienced, I can clearly say, that guitars rather need humidified air than dry air. I've had guitars beeing so dried out, that they wouldn't produce a single tone anymore. Rehumidifying the guitar for a few days had completely recovered the guitars. Great videos Brandon, you mentioned a lot more things than I would have thought of !
Well said! And you've hit on the topic of my next video about the importance of humidifying your instruments. I used to work in a guitar shop and often people would bring their guitars in at the end of winter very confused about the sudden buzzing and it was almost always just a dried out guitar. Happy Holidays! Brandon
I recently upgraded to a nicer tuning peg set with brass plates. This particular set had screws at the end of the tuning keys. None of the keys felt loose, however I had a buzz that i was having a difficult time finding until I grabbed the offending key with my finger pressed firmly against the screw. It's so frustrating that sometimes the buzz seems to be coming from everywhere. Also heavy duty aluminum foil works great as a shim and won't compromise the contact unlike paper, even if it's folded, which is softer and more giving (spongy?) than the aluminum. I suspect aluminum may not work as good as paper in regards to the contact between the string in the nut. Love your videos. Cheers!
I never had a truss rod in a classic guitar.. but recently i got a new Salvador Cortez which has it.. some freds buzz and just couple turns of the truss rod were enough to make the guitar buzz free.. i think all classical guitar should have one
Solid, down to earth knowledge. Thank you! QUESTION: I have a wonderful flamenco guitar, made in Spain, excellent quality. Recently bought used. But the action is set up for classical guitar, which as you know is a little high for flamenco. It plays perfectly fine. No buzz issues, no issues at all. Should I leave well enough alone? Or should I risk having it set up to lower the action? If it were a new guitar, of course I will have it set up, right from the start. But if the guitar has settled in to its natural equilibrium over the years, and as I say, it plays and sounds fine, I’m wondering if I should disturb things now. Btw, I’m so impressed with your videos, that I’m signing up for your offer by the April 30 deadline. Looks like I missed the April 24. deadline for the guitar strings offer.
Love your video and appreciate your sharing. I play lute and thanks be I don't have the problem that I do on my Baroque guitar and that is: buzzing in certain places on the neck and different strings. That most likely be corrected by gut fret tension I would think - a stressful thing to take on. I've done it with metal frets - but not gut!!! Looking for a good luthier now
I really wish more nylon string guitars would have truss rods in them. You can give the neck just a little bit of a front bow which allows you to have a lower action with less buzz compared to a guitar that doesn't have a truss rod.
They're not really necessary if the guitar is well-made and maintained. The tensions really aren't on the same level as a steel string. In fact, you should find that the fingerboard has a little relief to the shape to give the strings appropriate space to vibrate (see Rob Scallon's video with Marshall Brune [Day 4] to see more). Some cheaper, mass-produced instruments may include them rather than have the fingerboard shaped correctly. This is a manufacturing trade-off though they'll market it as a feature. Rather than spend the necessary labour to shape the fingerboard correctly, it's cheaper to plane it flat and install a truss rod instead.
The reason for the lack of truss rods in classical Guitar is because of the 2 inch neck. Adjusting the truss rod puts a huge amount of pressure on the Glued bridge, more so than a standard thinner neck. It may eventually rip the glued bridge from the body, that happened to me on Christmas day this year. :( So be careful with that truss rod.
Brandon: uploads Viewers: aight' let's start typing long comments Jokes aside this vid is super informative, all I had to do was adjust my saddle a bit
Until I saw this video, I thought it was a bad setup that was causing my bass strings to buzz. Now, I know it was because of how I was playing it. Cool!
I wish I could find the remedy for an annoying buzz between the left hand and the nut when fretted at only particular frequencies or notes and usually it occurs when playing chords that cause the buzzing fret noise
Helpful video.Am I correct in assuming that the pieces of instruments that weren't carved of one solid piece of wood were fitted together with pegs or tongue and groove? Glue does has offer the advantage of ease in repairing and replacing. (No vampire jokes. Tempting though.)😊🥰 Hope you're having a great holiday season.
In guitars and luths pieces of wood are glued flat (no dowels or tongue and groove). Only exception is the neck to body joint, which is a dovetail joint on steel string guitars. Spanish heel in classical nylon guitars. Look up those on RU-vid :)
My guitar used to buzz and figured that one of the string slots in my nut was a little too open for the string so i put a TINY piece of printer paper under the string and the buzzing stopped :)
What is with the black stripe at the bottom? Is it something like velcro to help the guitar not move? Love you & your videos, mate =] All the best from Bulgaria! Svanio =]
One more tip: don't wear shirts with too many buttons, they can rest on the back of the guitar and resonate with your playing making a buzzing sound! Or.... Just do the buttons up! Lol
Another tip. If your saddle is to low, you can cut a piece of venetian blind to fit under the saddle to make it slightly higher... just dont tell your wife :)
What I used to do to find buzzing and this happened I played down all the frets while pushing down on the string and noticed what was wrong right away.
I bought a second hand Alhambra 5P before Christmas which sounded fine when I played it but I discovered a mysterious buzz on the A string between the second or third fret and maybe the 7th. The strings are two years old but without a truss rod I’m terrified I now own £400 worth of fire wood. I’m taking it to a guy on Monday (they were understandably closed over Christmas) but I’m wondering if you can allay my fears? 🤷🏻♂️ Also I’m new to classical guitars and all of my steel string guitars have had the neck compensated, is that something that can be done to a classical guitar for ease of tuning? Many thanks. 🙏
Hi Jeremy, So I understand, when you press the frets on the A string (2,3, and 7) it buzzes? There are many ways a luthier can fix this. 1. You have a high fret that needs to be tapped down. 2. The neck needs to be reshapen. 3. The neck needs to be reset. 4. The saddle needs to be higher on the bass side. The person you are taking it to should be able to figure out which solution is best. Anyhow, it's fixable. Good luck! Brandon
@@brandonacker Thank you so much Brandon, there is hope. 🙏 Any thoughts on bridge compensation for a classical? I really am a stranger in a strange land with classical guitars… ‘no truss rod? 😳 No string gauges? 😳’ I’m almost amazed they come with frets. 😉 I know nothing about them other than that they sound wonderful. 😊🙏
@@Jeronimo365 No truss rod, correct. You can customize a saddle and nut to adjust the action, that's as detailed as I get personally. For more, you'll have to talk to a luthier.
My issue is string buzz, especially on the open A string when I attack it while it's still vibrating. Could it be because of low tension strings? I've tried all angles of attack but there's still this zzzz buzz sound.
1. Try the paper shim under the A string nut slot. 2. Use higher tension bass strings only (lower three) 3. Make sure you are landing on the flesh of the thumb to pluck and not straight to the nail. Good luck!
Poorly Fitting Bridge Pins or Bridge Pins that are too Long can Resonate in the BRIDGE. FRETS that have LOST their CROWN can BUZZ on the Leading Edge of the FRET in Question.
@@banjoboy01 no it wasnt, when i flipped my guitar and tried cutting the extra from the B string at the headstock, i accidentally pushed on the G string too hard and it broke because near the headstock is where it's very very tense already
So the yt.community tells me to be disciplined while i write the comments,don't report me, m here just to say this man's face is so good looking. NOT being inappropriate just wanted to say what my mind told rightnow. And yes i am focused on your teaching video too-thanks. But yes-your face is pretty. Okay i said it.
The ‘lecture’ was remarkable, I learned so much, and I’ve been playing classical guitar for several decades. Some unexplained criticism reminds me of Seneca’s wise sentence in latin: ignoranti quem portum petat nullus suus ventus est
