Guitar - Fixing Fret Buzz - Truss Rod Nut Adjustment

How to do-it-yourself instructional on making a truss-rod nut adjustment on a one year old Gibson Songwriter acoustic guitar (similar to a Gibson J-50) to eliminate fret-buzz.


[Guitar buzzes]
Now that's what's known as fret buzz. If your guitar sounds like that -- don't worry, it's not time to get a new guitar. It's just time to do a simple adjustment.
[Music]
[No dialogue]
OK so you've got this lock-nut on this truss rod underneath the cover there and we're just going to fit it with this five sixteenths deep socket and we're going to just give it a little bit of a turn.
So it's a new guitar and so I assume that the wood is swelling and it's become too tense against the truss rod so I back off the tension.
The standard change of tension is a quarter turn at a time, meaning ninety degrees at a time.
OK we're just going to slip on the deep five sixteenths socket, just like that you see. We're going to back the truss rod nut off, just a quarter turn to begin with, of course, that's what everybody does.
OK so I like to slack it off a hundred and twenty degrees and then turn it up another thirty degrees to make it a ninety degree turn in total.
Now having just done that adjustment, I'm just going to set it down and let the wood "take" and reshape a little bit before I go restringing it.
You can see for yourself what the fretboard looks like after the adjustment.
[No dialogue]
For a ninety degree total reduction in tension but as with tuning a guitar string you like to come up to the tension on it rather than just go down to it. So, if you're a guitar player I'm sure you understand what I'm talking about: you don't tune down, you only tune up. So that's what I did with the nut was I backed off further than I had to and then came up to the tension that was required.
[Strums]
Sounds OK now.

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[jesusismyr0ck]

hello! could you help me? i have two guitars with fret buzz, one of them is an esp ltd h-207, and it only buzzes on the 4th fret of the g string and it buzzes on no other strings or no other frets on that string; and i have a takamine acoustic where the top two strings buzz and they're noticeably higher than the rest, do you know how i can fix this?

[repairs101ca]

@jesusismyr0ck - Sounds like you need more than a simple adjustment - the ESP may need to be refretted. I'm not sure what to male of your Takamine. Have you checked the bridge and nut heights? Maybe time to take them in to an expert,

[indgiu]

does this procedure also work with electric guitars?

[repairs101ca]

@indgiu - Yes! Keep in mind what I said to another viewer below:

"if you can't find the truss rod under a cover on the head (see video) you may find it by removing the strings and looking in the sound hole - or under a pickguard - or behind a pick-up - or there may not be a truss rod at all (common for classical guitars)."

Good luck!

[rellic67]

i have a left handed acoustic ibanez and i was wondering what tools should i get to fix the truss rod?

[repairs101ca]

@rellic67 - Start with a screwdriver to get the cover plate off and then have a look - might be a hex socket like in the video, or it might be an Allen drive, or maybe Torx... any complete 1/4" drive socket set should cover all the possibilities. Good luck!

[JasonisDomo]

my fender acoustic buzzes on the 12th and 13th fret, how could i fix it?

[Z1LT01D]

look its adam savage from myth buster!!! i love that guy jEEZZy

[dropthedead15]

@repairs101ca sorry its an acoustic ,I've found out where it is already but thanks anyways for replying