Weird buzz on my sterling

Shy Guy · #1 11-25-2009, 05:48 PM

So a few months back I acquired a musicman sterling, however the previous owner put massive gauged strings on it so I swapped them out for some really light gauged High Beams. The action thus became extremely low and caused buzz, so I raised it, yet the only time it didn't buzz above the 10th fret was when the action was too high to be playable! I've tried every possible combination of neck tension/relief and bridge height, but to no avail

I've set up all my own basses and this has never happened to me, and I am kind of reluctant to bring it to a tech as I have yet to do so. I don't think there's an issue with the frets as this bass is a 2008 model and is very new. So, any suggestions

bdgotoh · #2 11-25-2009, 06:39 PM

Any chance they recut the nut for the larger strings and your skinny strings are rattling around in the nut? It's happened to me before.

EagleMoon · #3 11-25-2009, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bdgotoh

Any chance they recut the nut for the larger strings and your skinny strings are rattling around in the nut? It's happened to me before.

+1. Check the nut. If the neck isn't warped and the frets aren't out of whack, it almost has to be the nut.

Shy Guy · #4 11-25-2009, 08:00 PM

well, the buzz comes only from when I play past the 10th fret, an I doubt the neck is warped, so I don't know what the problem is

dmusic148 · #5 11-25-2009, 08:08 PM

Sounds to me like you need to loosen the truss rod, a lot. Heavy strings force you to tighten it. Now when you go to light strings, it backbows due to the lighter tension, making the lower positions un-playable.

Mad_Phingers · #6 11-25-2009, 08:24 PM

+1 On the truss rod. Check the relief by pressing down the strings at the 1st and 12th frets at the same time, then check the space between the strings and the fretboard around the 6-7th frets. It should be about a 32nd to a 16th of an inch depending.

If there is no space, you need to add relief by loosening the truss rod.

If that doesn't work... check out the nut?

Benjamin Strange · #7 11-27-2009, 07:32 PM

If you're not getting any buzzing until you get in the upper areas of the board, then it's most likely that there may be a kick (rise) at the body joint, which is fairly common in most production instruments. If after a thorough setup it's still buzzing, then you most likely need a fret level.