Official Luthiers Forum!

A fellow brought me a guitar to look at, fortunately not one of mine. It had buzzing between where he fingered it and the nut/capo, depending on what he was doing. It wasn't specific to one note/fequency or one specific area of the board, it happened in a few different spots. The saddle height was good, the neck relief was good, in all things technical to my eye it looked correct... Any idea on causes/fixes?

Raise or lower the nut slots. If the slots are low the back strings are riding just off the frets, and can buzz when their pitchs are related to a played note. If the nut slots are low enough, the back strings can make reasonably firm contact with the frets, and won't buzz. Raising the nut slots makes it harder to play in first position, lowering them makes it easier. Raising them is usually the more reliable fix, though.

If it is fret buzz, then it has to be either incorrect relief, neck twist or uneven/worn frets (since it also happens between the finger and the capo, I mean...). Maybe it is the truss rod rattling? Sometimes the buzz sounds like it is coming from one place when it in reality comes from a totally different place, like behind the nut, the truss rod cover, tuner bushings or whatever... I've been fooled several times.

If you are sure it's coming from between the nut and fretted note, then Alan has your answer. The other option behind the fretted note is sometimes the tail of 5th string will buzz against the 6th string at the tuner post if the 6th string has to many wraps on the post.

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Actually I don't know why I said nut, it was definitely with capo only. I could touch the string between the capo and his finger and the buzz would go away...