Official Luthiers Forum!

OK here is something that I just observed. As you might know I just finished a guitar and I was tweaking it in. I kept hearing this sound on the open high E 1st. string that sounded like a high pitched fret buzz. And it seemed to appear again at the octive but less noticable. But the funny thing was it only happened on the up stroke and not the down stroke. It wouldn't happen at the start but as the note would ring and sustain it seemed to develop and to me it sounded shrill. But while plucking down I noticed the sound of the string seemed to be coming from the bridge area. When I plucked up I noticed that I could hear the the strings sound coming some what from the nut. It seemed like it was starting at the pluck point and moving towards the nut and then back where as plucking down seemed to go from the pluck point and move towards the bridge with it not being heard coming from the nut. Anyone else ever noticed that. Or am I just loosing it? It has me thinking. By the way I loosened the string and filed the front of the saddle slot with a round tapered point needle file opening it up or rounding in out some and that cleared up the shrill thing. I guess when plucking up there was an edge on the slot that the string wasn't clearing yet not choaking and was making the string vibrate funny. Boy these responsive tops are tricky.

Chris I've had that happen if I understand your description correctly from a faulty string. I've also had it happen if the string is not set in place properly at one or both ends when I changed a string during a live on stage type situation. I can't say for sure if that's what you're experiencing though without hearing it in person. The problem there is... my ear ain't long enough!

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Bill Hodge


One does not simply, own enough guitars!