Will a knot in the neck cause fret buzz?

[CrashAlpha]

I just had my Hagstrom FXB530 come back from the luthier's after a "deluxe setup" which included having the frets properly seated, glued and leveled. However, now there's a buzz at the G string, 5th fret when the note decays. The luthier says this is because of a knot in the neck wood right behind frets 5&6 that makes the neck unstable at that point - i.e. it's a flex point.

I added a quarter turn of relief, and then adjusted the bridge saddles to compensate and the buzz now only occurs when I dig in a bit. But I was surprised to hear that a knot in the wood would cause a fret buzz that couldn't be solved by fret work.

Any thoughts?

 

[Beej]

LOL! That's a new one. A better setup will resolve it...

 

[PDX Rich]

Unless the knot is splitting and compromising the neck structure, it is more likely just in need of a good setup, as Beej said. Many folks stop troubleshooting fret buzz after intonation. Nut slots are not exact unless you cut them from scratch. Anyways, fret buzzing is usually related to the instrument's action, an oddly loose fret, nut slot depth and neck relief.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

I've seen plenty of necks with knots and hard spots, and they can definitely cause problems with keeping the frets leveled and true. A hard spot means that when you loosen the truss rod to bring in some relief, the neck doesn't go into a smooth curve. It has a little kink, one way or another. The solution is usually to do a little corrective leveling; working the area some more to compensate for the lump or dip.

 

[CrashAlpha]

That was pretty much what I expected - the work was done, the strings were put on, the intonation set... and.. oops. Fret buzz. A resigned sigh and no desire to take everything off and start again, just tell the customer it's the fault in the neck.

This was part of a $160 setup job - is it reasonable to have expected the luthier to go back and level again?

 

[Killed_by_Death]

I would be pretty ticked off if I paid $160 for a level & setup & it came back with fret buzz on the low frets.
You've already solved that problem, but is the action adversely affected?

 

[Atshen]

The frets have been glued? Why?

 

[CrashAlpha]

Apparently something the shop does to keep frets from lifting, they say they use a water-thin glue. The frets were definitely NOT seated properly as you could slide a piece of paper under some of them.

 

[CrashAlpha]

I would be pretty ticked off if I paid $160 for a level & setup & it came back with fret buzz on the low frets.
You've already solved that problem, but is the action adversely affected?

I think I've reduced the problem, but the buzz is still there on note decay. It;s a Hagstrom, so the action is still very low.

 

[RustyAxe]

Any thoughts?

Never heard of such a thing.

 

[Turnaround]

Apparently something the shop does to keep frets from lifting, they say they use a water-thin glue. The frets were definitely NOT seated properly as you could slide a piece of paper under some of them.

Not an uncommon problem, and also a pretty common way to address the issue.

As Bruce has said, any deviation from a consistent density of wood throughout the length of the neck will affect how it behaves under tension. The real question is how to deal with it. Fret levelling under string tension is one way - I consider it to be a good way. Let the wood behave as it will under playing conditions, then make corrections from there.