EC1000 fret buzz

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EC1000 fret buzz

Hello!

I recently bought an EC-1000 (VB) in like-new condition. The action was set up really low and there was a lot of fret buzz. I decided to set it a little bit higher to get rid of the buzz and so that it would be still easy to play.

I adjusted truss rod, bridge and everything...like 4 times already. Still can't get rid of the buzz. All strings except the high E buzz all over the fretboard...pretty much on all frets (first fret is fine though, doesn't buzz as much as the rest of the fretboard). 

I use Ernie Ball .10 - .46.

I want to fix this myself, so, any advice will be greatly appreciated. :)

Andrew

Hevykevy

Even though you want to do the repair yourself, the best thing to do would be to take it to a decent luthier and get a professional opinion. They might even just tell you how to fix it and send you off wihout charging anything.  That's a pretty hefty issue though, so you may want to get it looked at asap if you only have a certain amount of time to return it. 

Jordan J.

It could be a number of things, best advice is to take it to someone who knows what they are doing, playing around with the truss rod is a recipe for disaster, it's a nice guitar, it's worth the cost of a decent setup

Luis M.

Dead frets. I had this problem with an old EC i used to have. Just keep adjusting the bridge is what i did. in the end the action on the guitar ended up so perfect that....... to this day i haven't played a guitar with better action (lol). that's not really saying much because i haven't played a wide veraity of guitars. Why mess with the truss rod? that seems like an awful idea. you could warp your neck messing around with that. It's not that difficult of a proble to fix think of it as if it had a floyd rose. You wouldn't be messing with the truss rod if your floyd was uneven with the body youd screw in the springs that are on the back or unscrew... well what i'm trying to say is don't mess with the truss rod that's not the problem. I think your problem is your bridge mess around with it.... buy lots of strings.

Andrew L.

Well, yea, I'm not gonna mess with the truss rod anymore, even though I didn't do anything stupid (all I did was 1/10 or 1/8 turn just to see if it helps at all). 

I'll try messing with the bridge. Should I try raising it up a bit first? 

Thanks guys.

Andrew

Brandon M.

Andrew, I have the same issue with my Ec-1000. I always set up my own guitars, but this one has puzzled me. No matter how straight the neck is or how much relief it has, the buzzing is there. The only way I can get rid of (most of) it is to set the bridge pretty high, 2.4 mm bass, 1.8 mm treble. I checked my frets and they are all level, plus the nut is fine. I hate the guitar, but it's what I have, so I have to play it. Do like me and set it up to where it's most tolerable. Mine seems to play better with a pretty straight neck, around .0006" relief, measured with automotive feeler gauges. Of course, I have to set the bridge higher as I mentioned, but it plays best that way. Good luck.

Bill N.

Dear, I think if the action of the strings are too low then you just raise up the bridge to make it higher and adjust the truss rod to make the neck straight, tune the string to be in tone, then your guitar might work better! :)

Joey Spirito

Bro I think you may have one of two problems or maybe both. It sounds like someone tried to lower the action my sanding down the nut instead of the bridge. Not a problem but very easy to over due. And if it is overdone, that requires a new nut. Yes you can raise it but it would honestly be cheaper and more efficient just to buy and put in a new one. Another problem could be your frets weren't dressed properly. Doubtful but can happen. If that's the case, you have to dress and relevel all the frets. Either way you need to take it to a shop. Find a good local guy that proves he knows what he's doing. Don't just get his word. And have him/her check it out for cheap.

Symbiant

Jumbo frets. play it!!!

 

Mine buzzes as well. just jumbo frets on them. a good thing. kinda.. goes away after awhile

XMetalChefX

What tuning are you in, and also what level of "guitar master" are you when it comes to setting up....

Andrew L.

After lowering the bridge and tightening the truss rod a little bit, for some reason it doesn't buzz as much as it did before. And it doesn't bother me anymore. It plays great. I still use .10-.46 and play in standard tunung most of the time.

Anyways, thank you for your help. I'll take my guitar to a luthier as soon as I get a chance.

 

Symbiant

you shouldnt mess with the truss rod. tightening it may cause serious damage. like i said earlier. the buss is probably from the jumbo frets. also buzz can be caused from a bend in the strings if you didn't open the packaging properly and unwound it damaging it. i have buzz on mine. you should definetly take it in now and have a luther adjust it properly..

v8rman

Even though i like to tinker with my own stuff, anything i buy new or used goes to a tech first for me. I mean when you buy underwear you dont wear em straight out the bag right? lol you wash em first.

XMetalChefX

.....You mean they arent broken in for me? CURSE YOU HANES!!!!!

No seriously tho, if your buzzxing is still giving me trouble I can walk you through a "RESET" for your guitar that might be a fix. Let me know, and treat your trussrod like you would walk through a sleeping grizzly den with a steak strapped to ya...TREAD SOFTLY.

Dwayne M.

The reality is you don't need to take to a luthier to make neck adjustments, or set-up action and intonation, and I just have to shake my head everytime I see people saying that you do.

  If you really want to know how to do these easy basic adjustments properly, buy an instructional book/video for $25 instead of paying someone $100 twice a year. Here, I'll even help you out with a link to a site that literally provides a lot of info for free, and even sells instructional books/videos and all the tools as well.

it's called StewMac which is short for stewart macdonald.

Paul D.

You can even get a good start by reading ESP's manual.

XMetalChefX

I would NOT recommend a newbie to guitar adjusting to Stewmac lol. Maybe Allparts haha. Stewmac invents tools to "make jobs easier", then they sell a tool to use on that tool to make the tools job easier. All kidding aside Stewmac is cool.

jack.j

hello i know this post is a couple of years old but if you guys still have those axes and have problems i read on person relief is .06 this is not enough relief esp spec s .10 to .20 and the action spec is low e 3/32 high e 1/16  2.5mm 1.5mm i have a bunch of esps and ltd s all have low nuts from the factory try to use these specs and see if this helps because you should not be getting buzz on these guitars unless you are punching instead of picking keep the relief in the 10 to 20 range that is from the book if they were made to have less the specs would say less like rickenbacker is the only guitars bases i know that says little to no relief gibson jackson ibanez all use this similar specs point being you should not have to struggle or be uncomfortable playing these guitars keep the relief in spec  and the action within reason it will go lower than spec with no buzz then if it dont play right some thing is wrong i hope this helps any thing under .10 is not enough relief any thing over .20 to much all mine have about .10 to .12  and if you are tuning down you will need more relief unless you get big core strings but the guitar will have to re set up for any different tunings sting gauge etc but if your buzzing try the specs then go from there 

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