Buzz at the nut

[Doug4321]

Never had this before, but how to fix?

Restrung my fender jazz with rotosound flats. Now there is a buzz at the nut on the open A string. It goes away if I hold the string firmly between the ,but and tuning post of course. Was thinking a little paper or something stuck somewhere.

BTW I'm enjoying the flats, new appreciation for the vintage tone like McCartney, iron butterfly etc where a bass has its own tonal area to stand out in.. vs. I was originally more into the Entwistle growl, Jack Casady etc. and rounds. Which, is generally a more noticeable tone, people pay attention to treble!

 

[byacey]

Some may argue, but the Fender style headstock is a poor design due to lack of back angle between the nut and the tuner posts. I have the same problem on mine, and I've been considering adding another string tree to hold the A string down into the nut.

Others have said to put extra string windings on the A tuner post to force the string lower down on the post to increase the angle; I did this, but found the string is climbing over the previous wraps.

The problem also could be the nut slots are too wide if the string gauge is smaller. This can cause side to side rattling within the slot.

 

[Turnaround]

Some may argue, but the Fender style headstock is a poor design due to lack of back angle between the nut and the tuner posts.

The problem also could be the nut slots are too wide if the string gauge is smaller. This can cause side to side rattling within the slot.

Nothing wrong with the Fender headstock design. I do have an iusue with some of their tuners though. The hourglass shape forces the string winds to the centre of the post. You really want them winding to the bottom of the post. So straight-sided tuner posts are a better choice IMHO.

 

[byacey]

If I was to re-design, I would drop the headstock plane at least an additional 1/4" to 5/16" referenced to the plane of the fingerboard, and make up the required thickness on the back side of the headstock. At best, on the factory neck there is very little string angle after the nut on the E and A.

I'm sure Fender saw the issue, especially with the gear heads they chose to use, but for whatever reason let it go, probably to save money on the extra 1/4" of wood on the rough sawn neck blank. In my opinion, string trees were a band aid solution.

 

[96tbird]

Some may argue, but the Fender style headstock is a poor design due to lack of back angle between the nut and the tuner posts. I have the same problem on mine, and I've been considering adding another string tree to hold the A string down into the nut.

Others have said to put extra string windings on the A tuner post to force the string lower down on the post to increase the angle; I did this, but found the string is climbing over the previous wraps.

The problem also could be the nut slots are too wide if the string gauge is smaller. This can cause side to side rattling within the slot.

If the strings start climbing over upward, loosen it off again and move the wraps up the post so the last wrap doesn’t climb up over. Pretty simple solution.

 

[96tbird]

If I was to re-design, I would drop the headstock plane at least an additional 1/4" to 5/16" referenced to the plane of the fingerboard, and make up the required thickness on the back side of the headstock. At best, on the factory neck there is very little string angle after the nut on the E and A.

I'm sure Fender saw the issue, especially with the gear heads they chose to use, but for whatever reason let it go, probably to save money on the extra 1/4" of wood on the rough sawn neck blank. In my opinion, string trees were a band aid solution.

Fender originally and until the last decade or so used STRAIGHT tuner posts which allow you to wrap to the bottom. As Turnaround said, they now use hourglass shaped posts in many models ( none of the vintage models use them) and they are a terrible choice for a Fender headstock application. One way around that is to not trim the A string at all totally filling the post so it forces the string past the concave to the bottom.

I get that this is all a nuisance but also don’t Understand why some make such a huge issue of it. It is your instrument. You love it. You’re proud of it. Spend a little time with it and get it all nice and adjusted and tweaked and playing like a champ. This includes learning its idiosyncrasies such as winding strings on posts to control break angles.

 

[byacey]

In looking at google images, it seems Sadowsky implemented a string tree that pulls all the strings down.