Is it possible to have no buzz?

[kotornut]

I've been following the directions on the JEMsite tech section to get rid of my buzz on my 560 with a Lo Pro Edge. I can't get rid of the buzz on the wound strings from frets 1-7 or so. But even with relaxing the truss rod it doesn't go away. Now the buzz doesn't come through the amp at all but... it bugs me. I know I won't have super low action but it should be a bit lower and less buzzy I think. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

*edit*

Yes I read the Ibanez rules site too. And I need more help.

[Fender868]

Do you see a shim under your nut? If not, try to find something to shim it, but usually the truss rod adjustment should be done first until the bow in the neck is perfect, and then if needed - add some shims. They shouldn't be very thick. Just enough to lift it up higher

[kotornut]

what kind of stuf could I use to shim it?

[bakerman]

Shimming the nut only changes buzzing of open strings. If they're fine, you can leave the nut where it's at or possibly lower it to get the overall action as low as possible.

As long as a string vibrates the way it does, you'll get buzz once you get the action down to a certain point and hit the string hard enough. It sounds like you could still add some neck bow, though, to keep the buzz somewhat even along the fretboard. Have you measured the bow since adjusting the truss rod?

[Algiman]

The strict answer to your question is no. Any string will buzz if you hit is hard enough.

What sort of action are you trying to get?

[kotornut]

Just around 2mm at the twelfth. Not too low (unless someone tells me otherwise) but I think I'm getting it dialed in now.

[Doink]

Try shimming the neck pocket, on the outer side of, or inbetween, the last 2 screws farthest from the body. You'll probably have to lower the trem slightly as well.

Just to be certain here, your truss rod should have a slight bow in it. Fret the low E at the first and 24th frets (thereby creating a straight plane) and look at the string around 10th fret. There should be a bit of a space.

[Tank]

did you look into the obvious first:
that your frets might be worn and need to be repolished?

(just asking no pun intended)

[kotornut]

Originally Posted by Tank

did you look into the obvious first:
that your frets might be worn and need to be repolished?

(just asking no pun intended)

That might be the case, but this guitar has been in a case for about 10 years of it's 16-17 year exsistance.

Everyone else, I have tried all of what you are saying because that is the advice on Ibanezrules and this site, but it was still buzzing out.

I took it to a tech, and when I got it back it was worse, it even had a spot where the buzz was so bad it created a dead spot. While I was checking the job out, the guy realized I am not some dumb newb and that I didn't just want low action at any costs and was embarassed. He didn't charge me, but now I am stuck again and I have to do it all.

I shimmed the nut a bit, it was slightly helpful. But now I have to do so many things, and I dont know how to shim a neck and here in Japan we don't really have the ability to buy wood or anything useful for shiming or things like that. The culture here isn't like it is in the west. Honestly people think I am a handyman just cause I can use a screw drivwer to put a computer desk together. .

My RG560 is cool, and Ibanez are great, but my old non-trem guitars werent this much trouble to setup. This is my first floater.

And before you say it, my drummer friend litteraly gave me the guitar because he never learned how to play it after all. I did not buy a guitar that I wasn't prepared to own. It's all I got though.

[syxxstring]

Shims are typically pretty thin, business cards, thin picks, scraps of paper, masking tape, etc...
At this point I would set everything to neutral, and work from there.

[kotornut]

Is my action okay?



is there too much bow?



does the bridge look alright?



this is what she looks like sorry for the smudges

[jaxadam]

Originally Posted by kotornut

Is my action okay?

That looks pretty high to me, and I like relatively high action, but it could be the angle.

[kotornut]

It looks higher int he pic than in real life, and the "tech" had it low low, and I only rasied it a 1/2 turn at the most.

I'm only buzzing from frets 3-6 on the low E, A and D. so Ithink it's got to be one of A.Truss Rod, B. Unlevel frets or C. neck position.

My pops always said, "even if it buzzes a little and you can't hear it through the amp it's okay..." But I don't know this isn't the litle tiny buzz , it's bad on the E 3,4 and 5.



The low E is 3mm at the 24th fret. This is driving me crazy.

[bakerman]

Shimming the nut was probably unnecessary, unless the open strings buzzed worse than the first few frets. All that extra nut height would be doing is keeping your action higher than it needs to be and making intonation worse at the lowest frets.

Shimming the neck won't do anything for action/buzz that can't be done by adjusting the bridge height, except when the action you're going for is lower than the limits of the posts. It's certainly useful to keep the post height somewhat even and bridge lowered as far into the body as you prefer while maintaining the action you want, but alone it wouldn't fix what's happening on your guitar now.

Uneven frets/warped neck or still having too little bow seem like the most probable causes. Ensuring you have new strings would be a good idea too. Could you check the neck bow and let us know the approximate gap? Fret a string at first and last (or anything beyond 14 or so) fret and see how far it remains from a fret halfway between those points. You should be able to see the string move when you press it down at that fret, otherwise the neck is straight or backbowed. Check the next fret in either direction as well, just in case that one was unusually high. I've found that a gap of 1 business card's thickness is a good starting point. Depending on how hard you hit the strings, you may need slightly less or 2 or more cards' thickness.

[kotornut]

Well I fianlly got rid of the buzz. my actions a little high, but now I can work on that.

I now know that shimming was unecissary but, I'm affraid to remove the shims just incase it starts to buzz again.

the relief is good, and i used the buisness card thing. My neck isn't warped, It's not back bowed either. I think I can attempt to lower the bridge now.