
Do Heavier Strings Reduce Fret Buzz? Every one of us has this natural love for music. When you decided to purchase one instrument, the guitar is considered one of the easiest instruments to play with. Most of the time, buying an electric guitar is advisable, especially to those still learning how to play guitar. An electric guitar will give you the freedom to explore and determine whether you like jazz, country, or metal kind of music.
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You enjoy playing with it, but what if at some point in time, a fret buzz interrupts your happy moments? A fret buzz is an annoying sound caused by the rattling of the string or a buzzing against a fret wire when plucked. Some say that having heavier strings will resolve it, but that’s not considered an effective solution. You should understand and find what causes it so. You will have a concrete and effective solution.
What Causes A Fret Buzz?
When you encounter a fret buzz, first thing first is to address the issue and try to take some actions. It is one challenge that guitarists wouldn’t want to encounter, especially when you’re guitar is only new. You need to set your truss rod first correctly, and from it, you can determine whether it’s the nut, the bridge, or neck tilt.
Frets Are Not Leveled- For your guitar to produce a non-fret buzz, make sure that the frets are leveled. It means that there should no shorter or longer frets, and also it should come with the same height. When one fret happens to be taller, this will result from fret buzz because the string does not buzz against the low frets. It will be resolved with the help of professionals that it take up to 2 hours, depends on the condition of the fretboard.
Low String Action- String Action is the height of the guitar string measured at a specific fret. Getting a string action measurement may be at first, twelfth, and seventeenth, but guitarists have different preferences for this. A ruler does not measure it. That is why it is commendable to use a String Action Gauge. To resolve this, you need to lose the strings a bit and increase the string action by adjusting the saddles.
Neck Does Not Have Enough Relief- this may sound unusual, but a back bow is considered bad because it means that there is no dip at all. And with this, it often causes open strings to buzz on the first fret. You can fix this problem by only increasing the amount of relief on the neck by loosening the truss rod.
Conclusion
To summarize, the word fret buzz is an unfamiliar word to some, especially those who are new to music. You might already encounter this but don’t know what this is and how to resolve it. Always remember that there are expert people in determining and fixing your guitar problem- fret buzz, in being exact.
There are articles and online tutorials on how to resolve fret buzz, but there are also professionals that you can run into. Having a smooth and playable guitar will let you enjoy music more, so when an interruption occurs, run to professional as soon as possible. There are things that not all online articles and tutorials can’t explain that professionals can.