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neck rattle..

onemorebass

onemorebass

Supporting Member
Jun 13, 2006
608
33
Camano Island, WA
#1
Hi,
I just received a used Carvin LB70, it's really clean, doesn't look abused or like it's been dropped. The action is nice and low and the neck is straight... but there is a rattle/buzzing in the neck, it's audible when you lightly tap on the neck and when you strum the strings it's an annoying buzzing sound.
After receiving it yesterday, I unpacked it and let it sit for several hours then adjusted the truss rod about a half a turn to lower the action but the noise remains... any suggestions would be helpful as the seller is denying there was a problem at all.

Thanks,

Ken
 
#3
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#4
Are you sure its not fret noise? A rattle within the neck, short of the truss rod breaking, would not be audible, particularly with the einstaallation methods of a graphite reinforcing rod. If the truss rod works, check your saddles, check your nut, check your frets.
 
#5
There are 2 things that come to mind:

1. neck is straight without truss rod tension. I've had this happen on a couple of my basses because I do a little back bow when I'm building so that when in tension the neck is as straight as possible. A couple of times the neck has been dead straight (without relief, because I don't like relief) without tension on the truss rod and this causes vibrations from it when you tap it or play. Just put a little tension on the truss rod either way and see if it makes a difference.

2. a straight neck and low action can cause strings to vibrate on the headstock side of the fretting hand. This is not audible when amplified, but can be a little annoying. The only way to get rid of this is to raise the action or introduce some relief. I rather live with it since it's not amplified and I prefer a lower action and a straight neck.
 
#6
Well I eliminated a few variables, strings are off, tuners have been removed and truss rod was loosened and tightened... no difference, still the rattling inside the neck. It only takes the slightest tap on the neck or headstock to produce the rattling.

If you place your hand on the fretboard while tapping on the back of the neck, you can feel a thump under the fretboard. I'm not a luthier, so I don't know how everything is held inplace inside the neck .. The best way for me to explain how it feels is to compare it to a dead blow hammer (or a rattle?), you can feel the mechanism inside the neck move side to side and hit the underside of the FB.

Really frustrating.... guess I'm stuck with another parts bass, time to leave some neg. feedback for the seller..

Thanks for all of your suggestions... I appreciate you taking the time to try and help me out.
Ken
 
#14
The truss rod does work, turn it one way and the neck flattens out, the other way there is a slight bow.. upward.. fretboard being upward. It is older, I should have looked at the pics closer before I bid on it.. but I took his word on the age of it.. It's not five years old, it's over ten years old.
The other Carvin (LB70P) I own, now listed on the bay, has no issues at all, but then again it's only a couple of years old.
I have sent an email to Carvin regarding this problem, we'll see how the respond... it will influence whether or not I buy an Icon 4 in the near future.

Thanks for all the suggestions, and I will keep you posted as things progress.

Ken
 
#17
Nah, the truss rod won't move side to side or in/out... I have really tried to sharpen my listening skills, when the parts inside rattle, it sounds like two metal rods hitting each other and hitting the inside of the neck.

https://www.lmii.com/CartTwo/thirdp...odHeader=Truss+Rod+-+Double+action+welded+nut

Invalid Link Removed


I found a couple of website that have some pretty good photos of two way adjustable truss rods, as you can see there are two rods, or a rod connected to a flat plate.
Maybe one of the rods or plate has been disfigured by over adjusting at one time or another... So they should either be in contact with each other with some kind of force that would keep them from rattling, or just the opposite, apart with some force to keep them form coming in contact.. What do you all think?

Thanks again,

Ken
 
#18
Fat Karl said:
My guess is that one of the carbon fiber rods is loose and rattling around. A fix might involve removing a fret, drilling a tiny hole down through the slot, and injecting glue to stabalize the loose rod.
Click to expand...


That is food for thought... it's so hard to speculate on something like this until you've pulled one apart and find the cause... then next time, I hope there isn't a next time, you will know from what and where that noise is coming from.. I will send another email to Carvin to see if this has happened in the past..

Thank you.

Ken
 
#19
Hey Karl,
I see your Blue LB70 in the classified section... cool bass... if it had only been up there a couple of weeks ago! Is there any way I could get you to stand the bass upright, mute the string and give the back of the neck a little "knock-knock-knock" please?
Just curious if this an age problem with Carvins I'm having, or possible a temp/humidity and age issue..

Thanks Karl,

Ken
 
#20
i have a 9 year old LB76 with the CF rods and i dont have this issue.

my guess is that its possible that one of the rods may have broken. i'm just not real sure that the truss rod would still work well enough to adjust the neck.

hace you checked the forums over at the Carvin site?
 

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