Anyone had this weird buzzing phenomenon?

Lewy

A chap in the Collings FB group is experiencing this odd thing where he gets a buzz on his low E when played at the 7th fret, but ONLY if played with other strings at the same time. So he can't replicate the buzz on the E string alone, only when another string is ringing too. The issue "moves" if you capo too. So if you capo at the first fret the buzz moved up too.

Assuming it's not playing/technique related, any thoughts?

bertie

tuner ?   or magic mushrooms

merlin

Tweaking truss rod may be a good first option. 

bertie

merlin said:

Tweaking truss rod may be a good first option. 

good call, my Morgan (electric) had an intermittent truss buzz...........but was just that, intermittent - you couldnt replicate it with any consistency like the one Lewy's describing  -  Ive had odd / strange buzzes that responded to certain string frequencies that was a tuner

ICBM

It's most likely the string rattling against the frets between the fret (6th, if he's fretting at the 7th) and the nut. The frequency of that 'note' isn't actually the same as anything on the 6th string itself so doesn't do it when that string is played alone, but is being set off by the other strings vibrating the neck.

If so - which you can test just by damping the string there with something - then you probably need to adjust the truss rod, or possibly change the nut slot depth - maybe even deepen it, so the string is more firmly in contact with the frets and then doesn't buzz. Obviously only do that if it's not already as low as it needs to be relative to the first fret.

VimFuego

Old time fiddle players used to put the rattle from a (presumable dead, though this has never been answered for sure) rattle snake in their fiddle, perhaps he's done this and forgot?

Or the above more sensible suggestions.

Lewy

ICBM said:

It's most likely the string rattling against the frets between the fret (6th, if he's fretting at the 7th) and the nut. The frequency of that 'note' isn't actually the same as anything on the 6th string itself so doesn't do it when that string is played alone, but is being set off by the other strings vibrating the neck.

If so - which you can test just by damping the string there with something - then you probably need to adjust the truss rod, or possibly change the nut slot depth - maybe even deepen it, so the string is more firmly in contact with the frets and then doesn't buzz. Obviously only do that if it's not already as low as it needs to be relative to the first fret.

Thanks! I’ve passed your wisdom on and haven’t even claimed it as my own

Bertie and Vim - I haven’t passed your wisdom on because there wasn’t any……x

bertie

I feel " hollow "

FunkyGibbon

I had a similarly weird and impossible to track down buzz on my D18-GE. Eventually I took it to my luthier and it turned out to be a washer vibrating on one of the machine heads… it drove me nuts for months.