Weird buzz on Eclipse
Weird buzz on Eclipse
Ok, this one is pretty interesting (I think so, at least. My wife disagrees...).
So to jump to the meat. I bought a 2011 Eclipse with low miles (just replaced the original battery for the EMGs that wasn't even spent yet) but there is a buzz in the low E.
I took it to a pro and he did a fret level with a full setup. I picked it up yesterday and he said it was good to go. Before leaving his shop, however (I kept my distance, don't worry), I tested it out. The low E still rattled a lot, open and fretted all the way up the neck. He was surprised as he didn't get any buzz at all when he tried. I pulled a second guitar that I brought to him, and I didn't recreate it (nor can I on any of my guitars, somewhat ruling out technique).
Here's where it gets interesting. The person who had the guitar before me, while not playing much had hybrid heavy strings on it (11-52). My tech mentioned that the tune-o-matic bridge had a slight bend in it, likely due to the heavy tension. While he said that it could be related, he couldn't be sure.
Now, here comes the interesting part (and why the back story above is important). When I upstroke, there is zero buzz. Ok, first I thought it was my technique, but the I laid the guitar down flat and plucked the low E in the exact same way from side-to-side. In one direction it buzzes like a banshee, the other it doesn't at all. I came to find out that my tech is left-handed, so when he tested it he of course didn't get the buzz!
Any suggestions? Do you think the bridge could be the culprit?
Thanks!
In my experience up strokes always will buzz much less than downstrokes if a guitar has fret buzz. Its probably down to the radius of the fret board as the initial pluck on an up stoke will pull the string off the neck and where the radius has more clearance wheres the down strokes is the opposite effect. Theres There's probably a physics guy who can answer this much better than me
But imagine you've got a rope tied to two poles. Pull one way and let go and the range of movement will mostly happen in the direction you've pulled. The center point of the motion will lie somewhere between the ropes resting position and the direction you've pulled. Imo.
I play 8 string guitars and this phenomenon is very noticeable on the lowest string which is very slack. Down strokes make it buzz lots and ups not so much.
A heavier gauge string on the low E may help this as the range of motion is decreased. But it also could be down to the neck having too much relief aswell...Or the nut being cut a little too deep if its happening whilst not fretting...Otherwise the bridge saddle height has not being radius'd correctly to the neck radius
Sorry for the clumsy explanation but I've seen this before many times and thought it would be worth sharing my two cents
I can see that downstrokes having a bigger effect. You can even see that angle that the string oscillates to see that it moves towards the "arch" of the fretboard more with down stroke. I can imagine the opposite would be the case for the high E.
I went back to the tech today and he worked on it for 2.5 hours, just going through everything. When he initially did the fret level, he left the top 4 frets alone as they "break" on the Eclipse. But he did find a high spot today and took it down. It took about 1/2 of the buzz away, but it's still there. And of course he played around a lot with the truss rod.
Strangely enough, the best way it reacted was with low action. There was still a buzz, but when the action was simply raised on the bridge the buzz would get worse!
I will probably change to a set of 11s and go from there as you kinda suggested. Most techs have their doors closed now (apparently there's a bug going around?) so I'll have to wait possibly for months before getting it looked at by someone else.
Edit: then again, with higher strings the tension would just pull the neck more... something that I can duplicate with the truss rod, no?
Yeah technically you could just mess with the truss rod to mimic some of the effects of a heavier gauge of strings. But I think as the eclipse models have a shorter scale length that maybe the slacker tension of the strings due to the scale length may have an impact.
If you truly want to mimic what a heavier gauge would be like I would suggest tuning the guitar slightly sharp to see if the extra tension stops the buzz somewhat, this should also pull the neck a bit more too.
From what I read (and it matches what I would think is common sense) heavier gauge strings buzz less than lighter. Not because of the added bow (lets assume that in both cases the guitar is setup properly for the strings it has) but because heavier string requires more tension to bring it up to pitch and therefore has a tighter arc in which it travels. I will hopefully get a set of 11-48 (EB Power Slinkys) today and find out.
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There's an easy test.
Take the strings and bridge off and turn it 180 degrees. Put the strings back on (don't worry about intonation, it's just a test) and see if you still have the problem. If it's cured the problem, get a new bridge, or at least a new saddle for the low E string.