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Greetings all. This site has been a true friend of mine for several years now. I have learned much from all of you, thank you kindly. But today I am stumped....the dreaded buzz has beset my latest build. I have searched many other threads and sites for input and can't seem to find just what I'm looking for. Here's my buzz - G string fretted from 5th through about the 13th fret. Clearly a fret buzz when played with anything other than a light hand, but only on that one string. Seems to me that if I have a fret problem it would show up on other strings as well. I've been lucky enough to avoid this problem in the past so I don't know exactly how to fix it. Your input, insight, suggestions, and laughter are all well taken, thank you.
Mitch

Laughter he says.... Be careful what you ask for with me my friend..... Especially when talking about G strings....

OK G string buzz but not when struck open but it does buzz when fretted in the middle region of the neck. Is this correct? And, no other strings are buzzing as well.

Since the G string does not buzz open the nut slot is not too low. And since other strings are not buzzing either this is specific to the G string.

Don't know how you do your fret dressing but it's likely that the fret plane is not as precise as you may wish. Short of this though, doing a fret dress and getting the fret plane in order there are two things to try.

First loosen the truss rod a hair once or twice and see what happens. We are adding relief, just a bit at a time which should help unless 2) the action is just too low at the saddle.

You know action is a function of basically three things: 1) Nut slot depth 2) saddle height, and 3) relief or the amount of gentle forward bow/curve in the neck.

Cutting nut slots is an art.... and most builders never get even close to getting the slots as low as they could be. I'm mentioning this because I think that the action at the saddle may have to come up on this one if you don't do a fret dress. If that is the case, the action has to come up more than you might like you can always cut the nut slots too which will bring back down the action but not between the fretted notes and the saddle.

Let us know if this works for you?

Sounds like you need to adjust your truss rod (like Hesh said).

The reason it could be just the G string is buzzing because your saddle radius is flatter than your fretboard radius so that is the only one that is buzzing.

It would help a bit more if you gave us the measurement of the gap between the strings and the frets at the 12th fret to know what your action is. But even without giving us that measurement you can check the truss rod by holding down each string at the first fret and at the 14th fret and see what kind of gap you have between them. A quick measurement is you should be able to just slip a business card between the fret and string at about the 9th fret.

For reference without fretting the strings you should have a gap of about 3/32" to 7/64" on the bass E string at the 12th fret and 2/32" to 5/64" on the treble E. The measurements are usually personal preference but that is a good range to work with.

Bob

Entirely possible it is a bad string. Try a different brand of 3rd string.

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I forgot to add that this could just be a seasonal thing. Because of humidity difference some players who like lower action need to have 2 saddles. one for winter and one for summer. I have a Martin that I have to use 2 saddles because the action goes up and down depending on the season.

Bob

Flat frets will buzz too, are they evenly crowned accross the entire fret, or is there possibly a flat area along the g string from dressing with a bar, and then not getting that section recrowned again?

To what has been said I will add check the individual string heights to verify the accuracy of the saddle radius VS the fretboard radius.
Also as has been said, the string could easily be bad. DR strings are notorious for having defective strings and I refuse to put them on guitars.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

On classicals, the finest diameter of winding, i.e., the D string, tends to buzz more on the fret. So if you crown too flat, sometimes the D string buzzes more. On a steel string, the G string is the finest winding, so possibly too flat a crown could do this. Just a thought.

Same experience here too Chuck, we won't use em either. Here's a pic of a DR string showing the inconsistant windings if you focus on the space or no space between windings....

Which half of the string is buzzing? Coincidentally, I'm currently having some buzzing problems on my harp guitar, low E string, 7th fret area. But the problem is the "back half" between the nut and fret rings sympathetically with various other strings and rattles on the frets. Haven't figured out exactly how to fix it yet...

Back buzz is usually the result of the nut slot being too low. The simple fix is to shim the nut with a piece of a business card.

Don't know about the buzz really, i can only second what has been said about the strings from my own research.

Other than that you could always go to briefs or boxers, i have never had a problem with boxers myself

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Also one thing to check for, fret the very last fret and see if you get buzzing, because sometimes it's the saddle!!!

Failing that, looking down the fretboard, or using a straight edge should tell you if your fretboard is as level as you think, and the fall away really helps!!!

It could even be the string. G string loves to buzz for whatever reason.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Something that I find interesting.... is that we now have just how many replies, how many ideas and all the while we still don't know if this is an electric guitar, an acoustic, what kind of strings, and about 29,942 other things that I can think of....

Mind you I replied too but my plan was when the OP showed up again to ask some more questions - questions are a good thing sometimes unless you have to be around a little kind who is like I was when a little kid constantly asking, why, why, why.....

Anyway Bob's idea about too flat a radius on the saddle is a good one and very well could be it. As to why this instrument buzzes on only one string, for now...., that's often the case. And it's likely that a tad less relief and that strings brothers and sisters may join in too.

Hesh, you mentioned DR strings and how inconsistent they are. I really like the sound and feel of DR Rare .012s. However, the third string is consistently buzzy. It buzzes way more readily than any other string and if I switch it out for a D'Addario 3rd the buzz goes away.

_________________
Stay with the happy people.
--Reynolds Large

Hi ya Thomas: If you get a chance and have a loupe check out the next "buzzer" that you find in a DR set. I liked DR too sonically but the quality control seems to sadly suck....

+1 I would change that string before doing anything else. I have chased a 3rd string buzz a few times just to find it is the string. This only seem to happen with the G string.

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EddieLee

I'm back. Sorry for the delay, weddings always take longer than one thinks they should.
I've had some time to check out the suggestions. I did discover that my saddle radius wasn't exactly where I thought it was. I built a new saddle to be more precise, but still a buzz. I finally broke down and went to the store and got another set of strings...bingo, new G string does it. Thank you all again.