Buzz at Bb G string

simonwilmer · #1 07-04-2009, 08:14 PM

cant figure this one out , only buzz on the whole neck , Bflat on the G , the camber is pretty close to perfect but every time I hit the note theres that buzz , tried everything , no bumps on the board , nothing loose that I can find , nut and bridge slots fine , why would it be only on that note ???? .

JtheJazzMan · #2 07-04-2009, 09:39 PM

Probably a slight indent at that spot. While the board may seem flat, ive taken a perfectly flat file and ran that over a fingerboard to find all the little hills and valleys that your eye wouldnt pick up.

simonwilmer · #3 07-04-2009, 10:30 PM

I smoothed the board today and polished it again , and checked with a 7 inch straight edge and a light , I cant see any pits or lumps . strings are fairly new Spiro mediums ,and I tried a Superflexible G with the same result .

1st Bass · #4 07-05-2009, 03:16 AM

Are you sure the buzz is coming from that spot, and not a resonance from elsewhere? A buzz can be frequency- related, and only occur at that pitch, but be coming from literally anywhere...tailpiece, purfling, endpin, you name it.
A cello that came to me had a weird buzz, and it turned out that some repairman had lost the endpin, and it had rolled into a drop of fresh glue down by the end block...so he left it. Just cut a new soundpost. But the old one, stuck in that glue down by the block began to rattle and buzz like crazy. I reached in with a post-setter, and popped it loose easily, then retrieved it and the buzz was gone. One that was really bugging me turned out to be a loose segment of string-winding-- the silver had broken, and a tiny section, maybe 2mm long, was loose, and vibrating madly at certain frequencies.

Buzzes can be maddening. good luck. :-)

simonwilmer · #5 07-05-2009, 03:31 AM

I think your on the right track there Chet , I have tried to dress this buzz out of the board a few times now , I think its something to do with the mwah problem I have almost solved , but when I hit that Bb on the G , it has a definite buzz, if I play softly I can beat it ,but I dont play soft all the time , so Bb bzzzz C and so on are fine
Ill find the cause eventually .

**Matthew Tucker** · #6 07-05-2009, 07:07 AM

check tuning machines, nut grooves, bridge feet they can all cause a buzz quite easily. I find the best tool for finding a bump in the fingerboard is your fingers.

arnoldschnitzer · #7 07-05-2009, 08:22 AM

You have a wolf tone.

simonwilmer · #8 07-05-2009, 08:43 PM

Ok ,I have ordered a wolf tone eliminator , and this makes a lot of sense , I dropped the tuning down to Eb and its not buzzing at Bb ,I think.... was getting tired last nite when I tried this , but today Im going to rewind all the strings on their posts and check the bridge feet for fit . Thanks for the input its much appreciated.