Fret Buzz on Low E

[AlbertKingBlues]

Ok, folks. Here we go again. At last i hope
Les Paul Traditional 2013 in the middle of the neck (7 and all over down, first 7 are fine) has a terrible string buzz, and it comes to amplifier. All another strings are fine.
String Action at 12 fret is 4\64 on the bass side and 3\64 on the treble side
Neck relief i guess something around 0.010-0.012 and when i adjusting truss rod clockwise it goes even worse and it buzz all over the neck. When i loose the truss rod - it becomes a little bit better, but plays very unconfortable.
It feels like low E is slinkier than others and has not enough tension.

Ask your help , guys
Fret leveling? Nut?

Forgive me for my English speaking, im just another guy from Russia who loves the blues, Eric Clapton, Paul Kossoff, Jimmy Page and other late greats Burst players.

 

[El Gringo]

Ok, folks. Here we go again. At last i hope
Les Paul Traditional 2013 in the middle of the neck (7 and all over down, first 7 are fine) has a terrible string buzz, and it comes to amplifier. All another strings are fine.
String Action at 12 fret is 4\64 on the bass side and 3\64 on the treble side
Neck relief i guess something around 0.010-0.012 and when i adjusting truss rod clockwise it goes even worse and it buzz all over the neck. When i loose the truss rod - it becomes a little bit better, but plays very unconfortable.
It feels like low E is slinkier than others and has not enough tension.

Ask your help , guys
Fret leveling? Nut?

Forgive me for my English speaking, im just another guy from Russia who loves the blues, Eric Clapton, Paul Kossoff, Jimmy Page and other late greats Burst players.

Greetings, Truss rod relief to begin with ( counter clock wise ) then try adjusting the ABR-1 bridge to compensate for the uncomfortable action . This will be a compromise between to high action versus to low and the dreaded buzzing . Once again counter clock wise to raise the thumb screws . Please report back to let us know how this goes . Your English is fine . Fret leveling and nut would be the last thing I touched and if you feel that strongly about that I would take it to a reputable pro as you can really do damage .

 

[AlbertKingBlues]

Greetings, Truss rod relief to begin with ( counter clock wise ) then try adjusting the ABR-1 bridge to compensate for the uncomfortable action . This will be a compromise between to high action versus to low and the dreaded buzzing . Once again counter clock wise to raise the thumb screws . Please report back to let us know how this goes . Your English is fine . Fret leveling and nut would be the last thing I touched and if you feel that strongly about that I would take it to a reputable pro as you can really do damage .

Thanks for reply!
I'll tried that, and yes - a little bit better, but agiain its really not comfortable playing with that type of really big up bow even when i down the action.
I have a Dan Erlewine's Book about setup and many guys even at this forum do their relief same way as Dan did it his book - very small gap, almost straight neck.
Maybe my neck is curved and something wrong with the neck itself, maybe a humps ? I think its not ok while it needs big relief like mine. So its seems to me that something wrong with frets and nut maybe. To be honest frets are little uneven on my guitar.
What do you think?

 

[El Gringo]

Thanks for reply!
I'll tried that, and yes - a little bit better, but agiain its really not comfortable playing with that type of really big up bow even when i down the action.
I have a Dan Erlewine's Book about setup and many guys even at this forum do their relief same way as Dan did it his book - very small gap, almost straight neck.
Maybe my neck is curved and something wrong with the neck itself, maybe a humps ? I think its not ok while it needs big relief like mine. So its seems to me that something wrong with frets and nut maybe. To be honest frets are little uneven on my guitar.
What do you think?

It could possibly be the uneven frets , but what seems to jump at me is the "up bow " which if that is the issue that is bad . Not trying to be negative but I know of that issue personally with a friends guitar and he thought it could be fixed with a truss rod adjustment and the guitar was and is unplayable , which I hope that is not the case for your instrument . I think the best bet would be to take it to a very reputable tech to have this diagnosed .

 

[SteveS]

Clean notes when playing on the first 7 frets (nut to 7th) with buzzing higher up can be indicative of too much neck relief.

The generous amount of relief creates too steep of a valley in the middle of the neck, and your strings are essentially traveling "uphill" as they move towards the bridge.

In turn, to compensate for this healthy relief and still maintain a low-ish action, you've lowered your string height too much at the bridge, and the strings are now consequently buzzing on the frets higher up the neck above the valley created by the relief. The geometry of your setup is skewed due to too much relief and I would recommend experimenting with changing it.

Try adjusting the neck so that it's almost perfectly straight with only a tiny bit of a gap. Talking only about .004"-.005" of a gap max. A single sheet of paper measures about .004" so we're talking really small here. Do this with the guitar in playing position, strings depressed at the 1st fret and 14th/15th fret, and measure the gap at the 7th fret.

Know that a secondary effect of straightening the neck is your current string height measurement at the 12th fret of 4/64" bass and 3/64" will now measure lower. In order to have the same spec string height measure as before you must now raise the action at the bridge.

What you're doing is eliminating the excessive relief gap and changing the geometry of your setup so that the strings will now have the exact same spec action at the 12th fret as before, but you now have more string to fret clearance over the upper frets where you need it to prevent buzzing. Having the straighter neck will also ensure that your action stays low over the lower frets.

While it may be that your guitar has something else going on that requires more extensive work, I would certainly try playing with your setup more like I explained above first.

 

[rick c]

SteveS is most sage. String gauge can also play into this. I've been all over the place but generally settled down to 0.009" - 0.042" on my Les Paul. I set my relief to around 0.006" and actions at 4/64" Low E and 3/64" high E. The 0.042" Low E string is flexible enough to be really easy to play at 4/64".