Open D & G strings Buzzing

[Jason Gale]

Hi everyone,

I've only been playing upright for about 6 months now and I got my bass set up by a luthier straight away when I got it (it was delivered with bridge un-attached). Anyway a few months later the G string started to buzz (open) and then a little while later the D started to as well (probably now worse than the G string).

The luthier down the road from me said he doesn't do double basses any more for some reason and the only other luthier is an hour away and I don't have a car! So I was wondering if there is anything I could do temporarly to help eliminate this noise (definitely from the fingerboard)? I have my first gig with it in a week's time so I don't think I'll be able to get it to a luthier unfortunately

Any of your help and expertise is much appreciated!

Jase

[Jason Gale]

Oh and also, the gig I'm doing is old style Trojan/Rocksteady Ska so it wouldn't matter if I had to do something that made the strings sound really dead! It would infact help so if anyone has ideas for that as well that'd be awesome too!

Thanks
Jase

[jallenbass]

Try putting a piece of business card under the string at the nut. You're basically making the groove smaller and possibly eliminating the buzz.

[Jake deVilliers]

Have the strings become closer to the fingerboard down at the end? If so, you could try cheating the bridge towards the board for a little more height. Be careful not to take all the tension off the soundpost - it will likely fall!

[Jason Gale]

Thanks for the ideas guys! I will try the business card thing and see if that helps, if not I'll try the other idea (bit scared of messing around with the bridge as I tried to do it myself when I first got it and broke the D string).

Jake: The D & G strings do look very close to the fingerboard by the nut yes, I got it set up for Jazz so maybe he set it a bit too low and wood moved?

Thanks again,
Jase

[Jason Gale]

I just put some business card underneath the D & G strings at the nut and it has completely eliminated the buzzing noise! Thanks John, you're an absolute life saver!

I can get back to practising and actually enjoy it without the horrible buzzing!

Jase