New Guitar Day turns into Scratch My Head Day….

[CountryPunk70]

Bought a 2009 American Standard on Reverb for pretty short money- It got delivered, and I was really happy with it right out of the box. Had a little fret buzz, but nothing heinous. The next day, I decided to put 9’s on it since it had 10’s and that’s not what I prefer on Fenders. So I slowly took the strings off and put the new ones on, only to find that the action had completely flattened somehow, all the strings were suddenly right on the frets. So I loosened the truss rod a bit, thinking it was a relief issue, and got most of the strings back where they needed to be, but somehow, the low E string is still buzzing like crazy, and is definitely hitting a fret somewhere. I’m clearly not a luthier, and I have limited experience with truss rod tomfoolery- does this seem like I’ve just got a high fret somewhere, or what? The seller claimed it had just had a fret level done, and new bone nut installed. Does anybody out there know what’s going on here? Thanks for any info you can provide- I’m obviously out of my depth here.

 

[_dave_]

Someone else with more experience will chime in I’m sure, but my experience when changing string gauge, is to do a complete setup starting with action and truss rod…etc… it may not seem like a big jump to 9s but the tension could affect everything so that you need to “reset” for the new string tension.
Hope this helps.

 

[Telekarster]

I would recommend you take it to your local luthier and have them to a complete setup on it, if you're gonna play 9's. That's most likely the issue. I wouldn't mess with that truss rod anymore IMO and FWIW

 

[Si G X]

This would have be worried to be honest, it sounds like the neck has back bow without the tension of the 10's on it. ... if the strings were literally on the frets after going to a lighter gauge.

 

[CountryPunk70]

This would have be worried to be honest, it sounds like the neck has back bow without the tension of the 10's on it. ... if the strings were literally on the frets after going to a lighter gauge.

Yeah, I’ve never seen anything like this before. I’m going to take it in to my local guy and see what he thinks.

 

[CountryPunk70]

Someone else with more experience will chime in I’m sure, but my experience when changing string gauge, is to do a complete setup starting with action and truss rod…etc… it may not seem like a big jump to 9s but the tension could affect everything so that you need to “reset” for the new string tension.
Hope this helps.

Yeah, that’s what I was thinking- it’s not a huge jump, it’ll probably be fine. Guess not!

 

[kuch]

Hey CP70
I did the exact opposite. I recently got a 2011 Tele and I changed out the strings from 9's to 10's. When I get a "new" guitar I always install the gauge strings that I prefer, 10's, and what follows for me is to check/reset the neck relief as different gauge strings change the tension on the neck. Next I readjust the bridge/string height at the saddles. Then I check/reset the intonation.

The thing to remember is that when you make changes/adjustments to any guitar, give it a day or two to "settle" and recheck and readjust accordingly....

Good luck

 

[pfaust]

If it is just one string buzzing you can raise the string height on the bridge Saddles. Should take care of that.

 

[pfaust]

Heck, even other strings may have only needed to have the bridge saddles raised after going to thinner strings

 

[old wrench]

If it was OK with 10's - but it's now buzzing with 9's - you went the wrong way with the truss-rod adjustment - you loosened it and lessened the relief.

Some necks are more sensitive to string pull than others - sometimes you can drop the string gauge (and lower the tension on the neck) without needing to make an adjustment - on others you made need to tighten the truss-rod a bit to maintain sufficient relief.

Don't lose heart - get the set-up dialed in properly first

.

 

[Freeman Keller]

Punk, my practice is to always measure EVERYTHING before I do ANYTHING and write it all down. I start with an evaluation of the condition of the guitar - structural, geometry, frets and then measure all the setup parameters. Based on that I can decide what to do and what order to do it in. I can post a link to the method if you are interested. Just doing a shot gun approach as some are suggesting may or may not get you what you want, being systematic will let you understand why.

The second option it to take it to your setup tech - lots of good ones in Seattle.

 

[ChicknPickn]

Of course, you could use a fret rocker to check things out. Even a credit card if you don't have a metal rocker. As I've learned, just because you have one problem doesn't mean you can't have another.

 

[RodeoTex]

I'm guessing you took off all the strings at the same time?

 

[craigs63]

If it was OK with 10's - but it's now buzzing with 9's - you went the wrong way with the truss-rod adjustment - you loosened it and lessened the relief.


.

Doesn't loosening the truss rod make the string pull increase the relief?

 

[Peegoo]

If it was OK with 10's - but it's now buzzing with 9's - you went the wrong way with the truss-rod adjustment - you loosened it and lessened the relief.

old wrench knows his stuff...he just has not had his coffee yet!

 

[hepular]

rocket science it is not. There's a possibility that the tension difference between 9s and 10s is that drastic, but i didn't find it to be so going from 11s to 8s, so ymmv.

as long as you do not over-turn and over-torque, it's hard to mess things up on a telecaster.

check the saddle adjustment(MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE CORRECT ajusting wrench!!): those adjuster screws are prone to slipping. sounds to me like there was play in them after that set-up & they flopped down a bit. so, raise the saddles a bit (especially if the buzz is all over the fretboard as in the strings are too low.)

if that takes care of everything, you're done. if not, then go to neck relief: if it's buzzing all over, probably needs a little more, so loosen the truss rod a TINY amount--less than an eigth of a turn to start.

THEN start watching videos Ted Woodford, for instance, to get the hang of set up.

Finally, the folks who want to act as though the known universe will cant off axis if you take all of the strings off at once . . . oof.

 

[old wrench]

Doesn't loosening the truss rod make the string pull increase the relief?

old wrench knows his stuff...he just has not had his coffee yet!

Yes, sometimes I get things bass-ackwards - sorry for the confusion!

I better go have that cup of coffee !!!

.

 

[Toast]

Just speculating, but it's possible that the new nut has a low E string groove that's too deep or maybe the nut isn't level /. Good luck.