Posted: 12/8/2007 3:46:41 AM EDT
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I bought a Fender Starcaster (Made-in-China Strat), to learn on, and have fret buzz on the A string, 2 and 3 fret. At first I thought it was me being a newb, but I have tried all positions along the string between the fret and the higher fret and still get the buzz sound. Does the string need to be raised? Is it hard to do? If you raise one string, do you need to raise them all? Thanks! |
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I haven't seen a chinese strat, but every other one I've ever seen lets you adjust the strings individually at the bridge. You need a tiny allen wrench to do so. ETA if that doesn't help you may want to check the neck relief as well. ETA2 This page might help: Not a RickRoll |
Thanks! I'll check out the website. I guess part of learning guitar is learning how to do these types of adjustments as well. |
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A little relief on the truss rod should help beside raising your saddle up on those strings. The thing is you shouldn't really do it yourself, but raising the saddles should be the first step to try to work it out. All factory guitars are setup at the factory but understand a lower cost model has lower cost (less than perfect) parts and time put into it and things can shift over time and effect. I suggest if you don't have a friend who's been playing for a while and does his own setups to take the guitar to a local luthier to have it done, but it's really not hard to do. If you except that you could screw it up and can handle the consequences than no problem.  Moving bridge saddles can throw the intonation off so you'll probably need to reintonate after. You'll need the proper tools like a small phillips head screwdriver, saddle Allen wrench, tuner (+cord), truss rod Allen wrench/tool and some patience. After you learn to do it though you'll save yourself some aggravation when your guitar won't stay in tune because the intonation went out or wood shifted and swelled from temparature and humidity changes and needs a little adjustment. Here's good visual and word description for intonation, saddle adjustment, truss rod adjustment and so on, Project Guitar .com |
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Stay away from the truss rod at first. The first steps you need to accomplish is raising your bridge or tremolo. The bridge is where the strings first attach to at the bottom of the body. At the tip of them closer to the pickups there should be two screws or allen key holes. You want to raise them a little bit on the side where you have buzz, then tune again. If you still have buzz, repeat the process but if you notice you're going way too high and the strings are very high off the frets, then resort to the truss rod. I suggest taking it to a professional for that one. |