The elusive buzz....bzzz....bzzzz

Have you ever had a uke that no matter what you do, you can't pinpoint where the buzz is coming from? Initially it came only on the C string between the 5th thru 7th fret and I gave it to a luthier.

My luthier had my uke for 3 weeks and he has at least tried to level the fret, make a new saddle, tied all the wires from the pickup, reglued the braces, change strings, and who knows what else but I am thinking about giving him a call and get the uke back and try another person. I did try it and it sure sounds better but I want that buzz gone. Now the buzz is more prevalant. I'll wait a little longer as I wouldn't know what to do if I kept it.

Forces me to only play one uke!! The Horror, The Horror

I'd take it for a second opinion to another luthier.....you did mention it inatially started at 5th to 7th fret.. is the neck straight?? does it buzz all the time? etc... you probally can narrow it
down...

Back bow on the neck or twist??? I had one did that 123 frets trebles only, = back bow.

nongdam said:

Forces me to only play one uke!! The Horror, The Horror

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i would love to see a video of you playing more than one uke, how many arms do you have ?

It could be the string, run your fingers along the string to feel for anything unusual!

Low humidity can cause string buzz.

webby said:

i would love to see a video of you playing more than one uke, how many arms do you have ?

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It would be amazing right? Haha. I only have a re-entrant Koaloha Tenor to play and the uke in the shop is a I'iwi Low G Tenor. Personally, the I'iwi sounds so much better than the Koaloha.

To be fair to the luthier, I'm sure he's not working on it constantly and since they only do luthier work (not a big music store), I'm sure they have checked the basic stuff already. I will give them another week or two. I did stop by a week ago and it did sound better after he did some work on it. I was supposed to pick it up but I noticed a buzz on another string and he decided to keep it longer. One thing good is that the luthier said if he can't fix the buzz, everything he did would be free, which I think is fair.

The first thing I would do is see if the offending string is lower than the others and if so, if it can be raised at the nut without being too high (i.e. without causing intonation to suffer at the first fret). You can test this by slipping a piece of paper under under the string at the nut on the offending string, then two pieces of paper, etc. If this looks to fix the problem get a little nail hardener and paint very thin layers into the slot to build it up. Let the nail hardner dry for several hours before slipping the string back into the slot! (It remains soft hours after it feels dry to the touch.)

Second thing I'd look at is are the frets level - if not, is it really a fret problem or has the neck back-bowed? If the latter, you may be looking at an unsalvageable situation because, even if there is presently enough "meat" left on the frets to level the tops the unstable neck may still be in the process of bowing which means the buzz will come back.

Finally, I'd get an inspection mirror and light and poke around and see if there are any loose braces or kerfing inside the uke. That sort of thing can cause a buzz at the resonant frequency of the body cavity, which typically would manifest as a buzz at some center frequency and a little to either side of it.

John

After two luthiers, the buzz has been neutralized. The culprit was a loose washer at the output jack. It was that easy but it shows that even professionals can look in the wrong place. It worked out really well for me as they completed an overhaul of the uke and barely cost me anything. The uke sounds even better and shouldn't have a problem for a long time.

I've seen the nuts and/or washers on geared tuners do the same.