What is responsible for the string buzz that I hear originating from the nut/headstock?

[davidrandomlfo]

I have a Telecaster clone. I’ve had this issue before. It disappeared and came back again! Each time though, when I shook my guitar, I heard something loose rattle near the nut/headstock. I shook my guitar after it went away the first time. And there was no rattling. Is it my truss rod? Is it the weather/climate and the wood?

The guitar plays perfectly fine otherwise. I just hear buzz on some strings that I believe originates from the nut/headstock. Thank you in advance!

 

[ChicknPickn]

It's possible that if the truss rod is not under much tension, it can be rattling around. You could try tightening very slightly and check the result. If it's truly loose, you may feel no resistance when you first turn the wrench.

 

[KokoTele]

It's possible that it's the truss rod, but that's pretty rare. Tighten it enough to put a bit of tension on it and see if the noise persists.

It's very commonly a tuner bushing. If they're threaded, make sure they're snug (10 mm wrench) and make sure that the screws on the back are snug as well.

Check any and all other hardware on the guitar. Sometimes rattles don't originate from the spot it sounds like.

Also try damping the strings behind the headstock. Sometimes those rattles don't sound like you'd expect.

 

[4pickupguy]

Tuner ferrules, truss rod, string tree spacer…. somethings loose.

 

[Minivan Megafun]

Sometimes bees are known to build a colony inside of the truss rod channel.

 

[Toto'sDad]

I have double string trees on the headstock of my AV 72 Tele Custom. I kept getting the odd noise from the unwrapped strings, one day I took the little wings off, and took some really fine sandpaper and smoothed, and rolled the edges on the underside of them. Then I put a little tiny bit of chap stick on the underside tightened everything back down, and it's been fine ever since.

 

[Brent Hutto]

The most recent time I can recall having that symptom it was a loose tuner. It was a brand new guitar, tried it in the store and it sounded fine, got it home and it was buzzing. For about 10 minutes I was really worried until I poked at each tuner and found the one not screwed down snug. Whew.

 

[davidrandomlfo]

This is great information. Thank you everyone!