String Buzz

[Ron Wendler]

I bought an old PSG that I rebuilt and tried to improve on some of it's features. In appearance it looks much better but there are some needs to be revisited that have some issues. One being the nut. I used the original nut that has the rollers and with the wound strings it has crisp sound. Some of the plain steel strings have a buzzing sound. What might I look at to clean this up? Touch up the roller grooves maybe?

[Donny Hinson]

Is the buzzing on open strings, or barred strings? Does it go away if you use more bar pressure? How's your left hand muting technique? Lotsa causes for buzzing!

More than likely (if you're not a novice) the buzzing is caused by grooves in the changer tops. To rule out the nut being the source of the problem, add a drop of oil on the rollers or lay your finger on top of the rollers and press down while picking the offending strings. If the buzz is still there, it's the changer.

[Ron Wendler]

I can put my finger on the roller on the nut and it goes away.

[Donny Hinson]

Only one roller? Okay, slack the buzzing string off, then rotate the roller a half-turn, then retune the string and add a small drop of oil to the roller. If that doesn't work, you can try swapping that roller with another (one of the lower strings), provided the rollers all have the same size v-notch.

[Karen Sarkisian]

i jhad this problem on my push pull emmons. i took the rollers off and cleaned them, it fixed the problem for me.