Buzzing at Saddle?

[giannifive]

Just restrung my trem-equipped 7 string last night and ran into the strangest problem. My low B appears to be buzzing at the saddle. It's not buzzing against the frets because it does it even when I raise the action to 3+ mm, and besides, the setup was perfect before I restrung. It buzzes open and fretted at every fret along the B. Here's the weird thing: I can get it to go away by fine-tuning the saddle so that the saddle moves down a hair and then retuning to pitch. But then when I dive the trem just a hair the buzzing comes back. So it seems to be associated with the angle of the saddle. Any ideas? Kinked string? Something wrong with the saddle?

Thanks for your help.

[frankfalbo]

It's probably more of a rattle sound that you're hearing than a buzz. In other words, the string isn't buzzing against anything. The saddle is rattling against something. It can be three basic things. First is the saddle vibrating where the pin is inserted. Basically right at the pivot point where the two pieces come together. Second is the string locking bolt vibrating against the fine tuner. Third is the string locking bolt vibrating against the side walls of the slot it passes through.

My quick fix for this is to slack the string, then loosen the intonation bolt. Assuming the guitar is correctly intonated now, make sure the saddle doesn't move forward or backwards. Now, while pressing the B saddle towards the E saddle, re-tighten the bolt. What you're trying to do is get a little sideways pressure against that saddle, so it isn't free to buzz against things. Otherwise if it's an Edge variant, you could stick a tiny shim (like one cut from lock nut shim material) between the side of the saddle and the baseplate. It would be a little triangular shim. If it's not an Edge, and therefore has a flat baseplate, you could put the shim between the E and B saddles.

[whatshisname]

I've had this problem, as well. In my case, I discovered that I didn't properly seat the string in the saddle. It was off to the side, as opposed to being more centered. (Even though it still passed over the correct point on the saddle, it still gave me the buzz.) I re-seated it in the middle of the block, and the problem was gone. I didn't think such a thing would cause such a problem, but it did.

[giannifive]

Thanks, guys! I'll try both of these things when I get home from work tonight.

By the way, it's a TRS-7, so I *think* the baseplate is radiused.

[giannifive]

Originally Posted by frankfalbo

Third is the string locking bolt vibrating against the side walls of the slot it passes through.

How does this happen? It seems like it should be a very tight fit.

[frankfalbo]

Uh, exactly! It's a very tight fit, but not so tight that there is friction. There's plenty of room for that bolt to vibrate laterally. If you can really get the bridge buzzing, try simply holding the end of that bolt gently. The baseplate isn't radiused, BTW. The saddle stages are different heights.

If it's a lo-pro style, then realize when I say "string locking bolt" you'd have to switch that to mean "extension finger" that goes under the fine tuner. Since on a lo-pro the string lock bolt is just a little one shooting out the top.

[giannifive]

Originally Posted by frankfalbo

If it's a lo-pro style, then realize when I say "string locking bolt" you'd have to switch that to mean "extension finger" that goes under the fine tuner. Since on a lo-pro the string lock bolt is just a little one shooting out the top.

Oooooh, now I understand!

[giannifive]

Okay, so I figured it out! It turns out it was a burr in the saddle. I should have known, since it only buzzed for one angle of the saddle. I smoothed it out with some fine grain sandpaper and it's more or less back to normal. It still buzzes, but at a much steeper angle now, so you'd only hear it during a dive, for example.

I'm pretty sure the burr was caused by me not changing the strings in over three months and playing it daily...

Thanks again for your help, guys!