Low-E Buzzing - at the nut?

[Idiot]

First of all, thanks to all of you for a great resource - this is my first time posting, but not my first time reading the forums...

I have (just, 1 week ago) purchased a BTB JS1000 (oh, so nice...) from a dealer here in the UK. It looked as if it had been 'hanging' for a while (its a '99 by the serial number) but it is in great nick and i got a very good price on it.

I am having some teething problems. Firstly, I should state that this is my first floating trem, and secondly I should state that the thing had new strings on it when I bought it, which I have played, and stretched, and played etc. for a week.

Right, to the troubles; Basically, I have a buzz on the low E when it is played open. Fretting a note ANYWHERE on the string produces the sound I would expect (clear as a bell), even fretting at the first fret. The action is not very low, as I like a bit of height, and all in all the FEEL of the setup is fine for me. Fretting the string at the first fret even gets rid of the buzz... this suggested to me that the problem was *not* fret buzz.

I have a strat that used to buzz like crazy on the B, I tried everything in my arsenal to get rid of the buzz, but it wouldnt go until I discovered that it was in fact buzzing at the saddle - so I thought, hey - maybe this applies to the JS. Nope. saddles are great, afaik.

So i removed one of the nut locking pads, took a look at the underside. It seems a little asymmetrical, but basically is smooth as it should be. With the locking pad off, I re-played the string and got the SAME buzz. When I lifted the string BEHIND the nut so that only the body-side groove of the nut was contacting the string - the buzz went away.

My strings do not meet the groove at the headstock side of the nut, but they dont seem to pull too sharp on tightening. I have lowered the retainer bar slightly to get them a bit closer, but this did not seem right, as I had to basically lift them OUT of the headstock-side to get a clear ring.

As the action and fret-buzz issues are fine, I hope this does not mean shimming.

I have been trying to 'play the guitar in' but this is kind of hard to ignore. Also, it may help you to know that the guitar will NOT stay in tune, at all. Not for even five minutes. I have tried the steps on ibanezrules.com as far as possible for me at the moment, as I am still waiting for correct allen wrenches to arrive in the post. This is a really annoying problem, as you can imagine, but I'm sure its fairly trival.

Sorry for the long post - I tend to be a bit too wordy.

[Rich]

If it's the string that's buzzing I'd suggest raising that side of the nut till it goes away. First I'd make sure everything is tight and you're not getting a loose parts buzz like a loose tuner nut. That guitar is way past it's time to have a full retighten of all parts, which could be part of your tuning instability also.

[Idiot]

OK, ill give it a go and report how I get on... just got to wait for those allen wrenches

Thanks.

[Idiot]

Wrenches arrived - gave it a go.

In short, everything now is t-i-g-h-t... trem angle is good, locking pads lock well. It (seems, with a limited observation) to be holding tune better, but still isn't ideal (intonation is way off, but I have no tool such as the 'EDGEADJUST' to do this - I tried without earlier and managed to get the low E saddle back to where it was originally, plus a little bit - but this was way, way difficult - more on this later...)

I still have low-E buzz. I'm scared to death of adjusting my own truss rod, as well, and I have raised the bridge slightly (to no avail) to try and get rid of some nasty low-E buzz on the 15th fret (only... 16,17,18 and up are OK, but not ideal).

It only seems to be the low-E i am having trouble with - the rest of this guitar is fantastic (apart from the shoddy intonation - those saddle screws were l-o-o-s-e before i tightened them)

On to intonation: 2 questions;
1) Does anyone know where I can get an EDGEADJUST in the UK, fairly fast? Or any homebrew-alternatives from B&Q
2) The saddle screw on the low-E (that irksome low-e again!) is in the neck-side hole, but the saddle is so far toward the bridge end that the saddle only contacts about half of the screw head - and it looks like there is not enough room to put the screw in the bridge-side hole - this must be putting a lot of strain on the screw/saddle? I suspect that it *will* be possible to swap the screw into the other hole once i get the intonation a bit better, but im not attempting anything without some EDGEADJUST shaped mechanical assistance... so is it OK to leave for the time being?

Any thoughts on the buzzing low-E would be great, and thanks to all for putting up with my whining and long posts - i just dont want to wreck my baby

Cheers.