How to deal with fret buzz

Fret buzz can occur due to various reasons such as playing technique, guitar setup, or uneven frets. Although it may be difficult to eliminate fret buzz completely, there are ways to minimize it.

Check Your Playing Technique

Try pushing down a little bit harder or closer to the fret. If the buzzing goes away, you might want to work a little on your technique, or try experimenting with different string gauges.

If you're a hard hitting player who really digs into the strings when playing, try experimenting with where you hit the string and at what angle you hit it, or just experiment with strings with a heavier gauge.

Change Strings

If your strings have seen better days, changing to a new set might be all you need to do to get your guitar to play without buzz again.

Check Neck Relief

Changes in humidity and temperature can cause the neck to move slightly. For an optimal setup, your guitar's neck should have just a slight forward bow.

Follow the steps in this guide to check and adjust the neck relief.

Check Nut/Zero Fret

If the groove in the nut is cut too shallow, or if the zero-fret has worn down, this can cause fret buzz.

Get in touch with our customer support for guidance if you think this is the case with your guitar.

Adjust String Height

Before you start adjusting the string height, first make sure that you have an optimal neck relief as described above.

To adjust the individual string height, tune down the string and carefully lift it off the saddle screw. Turn the saddle screw to raise or lower it. Tune the strings back to pitch and perform a play test.

On guitars with tremolo bridges, you can also adjust the universal string height by the two adjustment screws on the side of the tremolo baseplate.

Check Pickup Height

If the pickups have been raised too close to the strings, the magnetic pull from the pickup can cause fret buzz or bad intonation/tuning instability.

Try lowering the pickups and see if that has any effect on the buzzing.

Get Help

If you've gone through all the steps above but still can't get the buzzing to go away, get in touch with our customer support or consult a skilled guitar tech for help with further troubleshooting.