Action / buzz

Sofaspud

Morning,

I have an Ibanez s670, and there's a strange problem with buzz.
There's no fret buzz anywhere on it, except for when I bend up on the 15th fret of the b or high e strings, when it's really noticeable and annoying, it sometimes comes close to killing the note.

The action on it isn't very low either, so it's not just that, and if I made the action any higher it'd be uncomfortable.
Is it a truss rod problem, or would I have to get it checked out / frets leveled and such?

Voodu Child

Usually, it wouldn't be a truss-rod issue that high up on the neck.

(Hold the low-E down at the first and last fret. On a guitar like the S, you're looking for roughly 1/2 a mm or less gap between the string and where it's closest to the frets.)

The problem is likely either that the action is too low, or that there is one or more frets in that region that aren't level (15th fret too low/16th too high etc). Or, there could be a rising tongue in the fingerboard itself (sometimes happens with bolt-ons where moisture gets into the screw-holes for eg.)

Since you say the action isn't too low, it sounds like you may need a luthier to have a look.

How low is the action out of curiosity? (in mm, at the 22nd fret low&high E)

Sofaspud

voodoo_child wrote: »

How low is the action out of curiosity? (in mm, at the 22nd fret low&high E)

Not at all as low as you'd expect from a "wanky" guitar anyway.


Just checked there, 5mm for the low e, about 3 mm for the high, which is pretty damn high.

Voodu Child

Thats very high alright. I'd rarely have the low-E any higher than about 2mm off the 24th fret on an Ibanez. 1.5 ish for the high-E. That's not a super-accurate measurement, (i usually just eye it up with a 1mm pick) but it's not far off.

5mm and 3mm is definitely on the high side, even with bad frets that thing should be clear as a bell on any fret.

I'd say best thing is to have a luthier take a peek at it.

Sofaspud

I'm in Dublin, so I'm guessing Derrick Nelson would be the man to call?

Where abouts in Dublin is he based? And how much would it be, roughly?

Johnny Storm

He is in the craft centre in Marlay Park. He'll give you a quote before doing anything. Be prepared - he is expensive and takes a long time but is very good.

Sofaspud

Hmm, that's a good bit out of my way actually, would there be anyone maybe closer to the city centre?

fguihen

take it into Musician Inc. they are very good and if its not a huge job,( just adjustments and such and wont take more than a few mins) they often do it for free. I would hazard a guess that the guitar simply needs to be set up, not to make any assumptions about your expertise level, but if you havnt done it before, and have chagned a few strings due to brakages, those floating bridges can cause a world of problems( expirience talking!!).

I have an ibanez RGT42 that came with the most rubbish LowTRS2 floating trem. couldnt hold tune for more than a few mins. was shown how to set it up properly and it was much better ( still rubbish though). i upgraded to a schaller floating floyd rose. never ever went out of tune, but still a pain to set up, so i have now blocked it off with a nice lump of mahogony.

If you dont use the trem, id advise you block it off also. makes the guitar much easier to tune and maintain. anyway, long story short, try getting it set up properly before bringing it to a luthier. could save you a lot of time and potentially money.

Sofaspud

fguihen wrote: »

take it into Musician Inc. they are very good and if its not a huge job,( just adjustments and such and wont take more than a few mins) they often do it for free. I would hazard a guess that the guitar simply needs to be set up, not to make any assumptions about your expertise level, but if you havnt done it before, and have chagned a few strings due to brakages, those floating bridges can cause a world of problems( expirience talking!!).

I've done basic setups, tried adjusting the truss rod before that only made it worse, the ZR trem is perfect, no problems with that. It's only that buzz is created by bending strings at a certain fret, so the 16th or 17th fret might be a bit too high.

Intonation, on the other hand, confuses the bejeebus out of me, I've had a go at that before and nearly ended up hunched in a corner crying!
Managed to get it to an acceptable standard though.

Going to town later, I'll bring it into musician inc, thanks!

Sofaspud

rought it to musician inc, but they "had no room" for it, so they told me to go to "guitar fix" on exchequer st (above buffalo shoes), I just got it back and I'm highly impressed with it!

The fret and action problems are fixed, and it's been set up perfectly, neck feels beautiful now. And a snap at €50. Kevin was really friendly too.

Voodu Child

What was done to it?