Setup question about buzz

[DalyTek]

I just put a new set of Elixir 10s on both of my guitars, and did a setup on them using this page as a guide.

Everything went well my ESP, got everything setup as close to perfectly as I can for me.
On my Kelly, everything came out good except for I have buzzing on my low E string.
The buzz starts at about the 3rd fret and continues all the way down the fretboard.

It's not a string deadening buzz, the notes still ring out, but the light string-barely-touching-the fret-wire type of buzz. It only happens on that one string, the others are fine.

If I raise my action, the buzz goes away, but then the action is way high.

PS: On a side note (that may be related, not sure...) I have my trem all the way bottomed out to the lowest it will go, and the action is still a tiny bit high.

Any ideas on where to start to troubleshoot? Thanks!

[Grandturk]

You can shim the saddle bit which will raise just that string a bit. I'm assuming a Floyd?

In practice, some buzz is nearly inevitable short of a perfect or pleked fret job.

[DalyTek]

Yes, it's a JT580LP Floyd.

Do you think I might need to shim the neck a little? It's got me thinking since I have the Floyd posts completely bottomed-out and it's STILL a tad high...

[Grandturk]

Shunning the neck will provide more tilt and let you foist the Floyd higher. This will let you have more adjustment range up and down.

[DalyTek]

OK, well I put a small piece of an old gift card into the bottom of the neck pocket as a shim, and it made a world of difference as far as height for the Floyd.
Still having the buzzing issue though on the low E string.
Does anyone have Jackson-specific setup specs when the strings are 10s instead of the stock 09s?

I can't see what I am missing....

[Trem]

Cool link, especially this little piece of ingenuity http://schrammguitars.com/buzz.html
I don't think there needs to be any Jackson specific setup guide to resolve your problem it's universal to any guitars.
Some guitars are just going to have those problems with low action unless you have the frets specifically dressed for it Or compensate for it in some way with either different string gauge or setup fine tuning. Every guitar is different, not every jackson is guaranteed to be able to to have a 1mm across the board action, in fact it's pretty much not likely at all. It's also not likely that if one does it will remain that way throught the seasons so you are setting them up again some months later. Myself i pretty much never touch my truss rod on my guitars, some months they have a higher action due to the weather and some may gain some buzz, then go back to normal later. Anymore i am pretty lenient to those things. I do also prefer a higher action and find once gotten used to, that not only do those problems rear their head as much but the guitar just sounds better so i prefer it. I like to get my fingers under the string. My action leans on the 2mm side. When i get a guitar if it has low action that a lot of people would cream over, i usually raise it. Now, that being not an option for you, you either are going to have to tweak it till it is perfect and it may not even be able to be on that guitar as it is, or change the string gauge back, or have it fine tuned/frets dressed to be able to handle your preference, or live with a little buzz...That's pretty much the answer.

[DalyTek]

So what you're saying is this guitar will not play properly with a set of 10s on it, I need to go back to 9s or else get a full fret level and dress done?
I guess that must be the case, as all I did was change the strings and it started buzzing. There was no problems when the old strings were on, outside of the fact the strings were old and lifeless. The frets were fine, actually have no wear on them at all. There were no dead spots or buzzing frets.

Seems unlikely that fretwork would be needed for a simple string change, but if I knew what was really going on I wouldn't be asking for help.

[Trem]

I'm not saying it's impossible, i don't have the guitar in my hands so it's hard for one to assess. Also i don't know what "too high" means to you. Usually your bass strings don't need to be as low as your treble strings to be comfortable still if one likes low action. What i have with my floyds is my bridge is not perfectly level, my bass side post is a tiny bit higher than my treble side, by like a mm or so to eleviate some buzz. I have some guitars that do not buzz at all, and some will have a tiny bit of sizzle on the initial strike, but it's not enough to matter if it doesn't buzz thru the entire ringing out of the string that is usually acceptable, but i don't use those guitars for clean playing if i want a perfectly clear sound. Usually those guitars will have a higher action to eleviate that. Plus they sound better acoustically. What i'm saying is you may have to work at it more to get it exactly how you want it, and sometimes you may have to have to compromise.
One thing you can check is since you went to a higher gauge string, if your low E is oscillating weird when you strike it, does it warble erratic in it's oscillation? You can see if it's not a smooth vibration, if it's warbling wide it may be hitting other frets along the way. You also may also have to check your intonation and pull back the saddle a bit.

[DalyTek]

I was having to raise the strings to about 3 to 4 mm to get rid of the buzz, which was just way too high.
I did some more tweaking on it and I got it settled into a bit over 2 mm with minimal buzzing.
The buzz is still there somewhat, but it's tolerable.

I visually checked the string oscillation just now, and it looks looks normal to my eyes.
I will re-check my intonation, hadn't thought of that being part of the problem, but it definitely might be.

Thanks for the info Trem!

[Chad]

Could be any number of things, but just gonna throw a few possibilities out there...


Did you adjust the truss rod? Going from 9s to 10s would most likely pull additional relief into the neck. Too much relief can cause some fret buzz issues.

Also, since it's just the low E, I'd wonder if the string is okay. Dud strings are rare, but it's at least a possibility.

Are your pickups too close to the strings?

[DalyTek]

Chad:
Yes, I adjusted the truss rod. I've got it at the best spot where I get the least amount of buzz, but I have to have my action pretty high still.
I doubt it's the string. I don't have any extra Elixir strings to test that with though. I don't want to waste a set of $12 coated strings to check.
I know for sure it's not the pickup hight, I already checked that.