Buzzing Past 12th Fret

Buzzing Past 12th Fret
First Fret Buzzing

I would place a capo on the 12th fret,raise the bridge to the point that fret buzz is eliminated and the raise the tailpiece until the strings resonate freely, completely clearing the back of the bridge body. Fine tune from there, but I've only been teching for 30 some years, so what do I know? Many times when you experience fret buzz it's a single fret and you don't need to level, crown and dress them all! Too often a luthier will tell you the fret.

It can ruin the clear ringing notes of an anthem … it can turn the hottest solo into a slushy mess … and it can turn you into one cranky bastard in minutes.

Guitar buzz is probably one of the most annoying problems that you can find yourself dealing with. It can happen with a new guitar, or with a different set (or even brand!) of strings.

The hardest part of it is tracking it down. Once you’ve found it, it’s normally not a big deal getting rid of it.

Step One: Make sure it’s really the strings buzzing. It’s easy to assume its the strings when you only hear it when you are playing.

The best way to do this is to play the guitar un-amplified.

Play a few loud chords up and down the neck and listen very closely. Listen to where the buzzing sound is coming from. If you don’t hear the buzzing at this point, you might have a problem with your amp or a cable.

If you do hear the buzzing, see if you can figure out which part of the guitar it is coming from. It it coming from near the bridge? Or is it coming from the middle of the neck, or where your fingers are fretting the chords?

Rule out the non fret buzz possibilities. Listen while playing and make sure nothing is loose, like bridge saddle pieces, tuners, pickup covers (make sure the pickups arent too high and hitting the strings as well), volume knobs, pickup selectors, etc.
This process can be tricky. I also recommend shaking the guitar. It may sound silly, but I once found a glob of solder in the pickup cavity that was making quite a racket as it bounced around and vibrated in there. I found it by shaking the guitar. It might alleviate some frustration.

The final thing you might be able to rule out with a visual inspection is a loose or high fret. As you look across the frets (try looking down the neck from the headstock and then again from the bridge side) and see if any of the frets are noticeably higher than the others, or stick up in funny ways that the others dont.

If you find a fret that’s out of whack, you might want to take it to a repair shop. This can be fixed reletively cheaply and its not something you want to tackle at home in most cases.

If none of this investigation yeilds results you can assume you have something up with your neck or bridge. There is still a good chance you can fix it at home, however.

Now, its time to start playing up and down the neck. Play all the way up and down the neck and keep track of where you hear the fret buzz.

There are a few simple rules as far as location on the neck that can tell you what sort of problem your guitar is having.

If the buzzing is happening on open strings, it’s possible that you have to raise the bridge (action) or shim the nut. Shimming the nut is considerably harder, so I would recommend trying to raise the bridge, if only to rule out what the issue is. If your buzzing is coming from higher (higher notes, higher than the 12th fret) on the neck, a bridge adjustment is more likely to work. If its lower on the neck, you might want to try adding some relief to the neck by adjusting the truss rod a bit looser.

You should never have to play with crappy action however, so if you end up raising the bridge to where you aren’t comfortable with the action, its the wrong solution.

It might be that adding some relief to the truss rod is the answer.

Just remember, there are only 3 things outside of a completely warped neck that you need to think about – the nut, the bridge, and the truss rod adjustment (bow and relief). Well, lets make that four things, becasue you might have some strange frets buzzing, but we’re already covered that.

So out of our 3 things, the two most likely (bridge and truss rod) are also the easiest to adjust.

If you don’t know what you are doing I don’t recommend adjusting the truss rod unless you are very careful.

Truss rod adjustments are not for adjusting your action – that is more the bridge and the nut adjustments.

A good rule of thumb is to do this:

Hold down your low E string on the 1st fret. Capo it there if you have a capo.
Fret the same string at the same time with your finger, around where the neck meets the body. You’ve now removed the bridge and nut from the equation and you can see how straight your neck is.
Look at the 8th or 9th fret – whichever is closer to the middle of the two positions you have fretted.
There should be a gap about the thickness of a credit card (.5 mm) between the fret and string.
If there is no gap you might have found the cause of your buzzing. The neck needs relief (loosen it).
If there is too much gap – or just enough, your problem is probably elsewhere

You will need an allen wrench that is exactly the right size for the truss rod. Don’t try using one that doesn’t fit – you’ll regret it.

Turn the nut counterclockwise to loosen it, and clockwise to tighten it.
Only turn in 1/8 to 1/4 turns, no more. KEEP TRACK! You may want to return it to the original position if it doesn’t solve your problem.
If there is too much resistance – and you feel like you are forcing it – stop. Take it to a professional.
Re tune, check the action, and wait an hour.
Come back and play and listen for buzz.
Repeat until you get better results.
If the nut starts to get sloppy or loose, you are probably not fixing anything. Return the nut to where it was.

If this doesn’t work, you have diagnosed the issue improperly and you might want to look at some of the options above besides the truss rod as the cause of your buzz. If this does fix it, congrats! You might have to tweak your action a little if the truss rod adjustment has altered the feel to where you don’t like it.

Sometimes a simple change in gauge of strings can be the cause and require some adjusting. Make your adjustments one at a time, and if they don’t make things better, return them to where they were before you try something else, or you will end up with a jacked up guitar.

We don’t want that.

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Download Conquering Guitar Acrophobia: Playing in High Positions Past the 12th Fret
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Conquering Guitar Acrophobia:
Playing in High Positions Past the 12th Fret

By Douglas Niedt

Sometimes a piece of music takes us into the stratosphere—up into the area of the fretboard above the 12th fret. It doesn’t happen frequently. But when it does, it is very important that your hand be stable and that the fingers are able to move freely and precisely amongst those very narrow frets. It is also a region where the action of the guitar (height of the strings above the fretboard) can be rather high. Although there aren’t very many passages that go into that high region, those that do are usually very exposed. Just the fact that the notes being played are very high in pitch means that they are extremely noticeable within the musical context. Here is a good example:

Listen to the passage played by Christopher Parkening. (A separate window will open that you can minimize in order to still see the written musical example as you listen.)

THERE ARE THREE MAJOR POINTS TO KEEP IN MIND WHEN PLAYING NOTES IN THE UPPER REGION OF THE FRETBOARD ABOVE THE 12TH FRET.

There are two basic finger positions you can use:
A. Parallel-with-the-frets position
B. Slanted position (I often call it the violinist’s finger position)

It is usually a good idea to allow the tip joint of the left-hand first finger to “collapse” or “give.” The anatomical jargon is: mildly hyperextend the tip joint.

The lower side of the guitar’s upper bout is “your friend.” It is not an obstacle. Use it to give the left hand stability past the 12th fret.

FINGER POSITION

We use both the parallel-with-the-frets finger position and slanted finger position below the 12th fret all the time. But in a way, the decision of which position to use is even more critical past the 12th fret. The frets are much closer together and the height of the strings above the fretboard is much higher as we pass the 12th fret. The instrument is very unforgiving in this high region. Fingers must be placed precisely against the frets with firm pressure. Anything less results in buzzes or no sound at all and sometimes, total breakdown. And again, this is usually happening in a very exposed spot often at a climatic moment of a phrase, section, or even the entire piece.

Watch as I demonstrate the two basic positions in video clip #1:

It is impossible to generalize which position is best for various situations. There are just too many variables not just in the music, but also with the hand and body anatomy of different players. In some instances the choice is very clear--only one position will work at all, so there will be no question.

Buzzing Past 12th Fret

Some passages could be done either way but one position may give a slight edge. Here is an example of that in the seventh variation of Benjamin Britten’s Nocturnal:

Watch as I demonstrate both finger positions in video clip #2:

In other passages a mix of both positions is required. Let’s look again at the passage from Christopher Parkening’s transcription of Erik Satie’s Gymnopedie No. 1:

Watch as I demonstrate the use of both positions in video clip #3:

But in many instances the best thing is to work the passage with both finger positions and see which works best.

COLLAPSING THE TIP JOINT OF THE FIRST FINGER

When playing in the upper positions, there are two problems that cause instability that are easily solved. First, the strings are less taut in the middle third of their length (which is where much of the upper region of the fretboard falls) than towards the nut or towards the bridge. Second, because the hand must arch up over the body of the guitar as it plays beyond the 12th fret, it is in a position with a rather high center of gravity. That, combined with the loose feel of the strings, presents a real danger of the fingers accidentally pulling the strings sideways, of held strings slipping out from under the fingertips, or of the fingers pulling the first string off the edge of the fretboard.

It is common practice to collapse a left-hand finger tip joint to hold a two or three-string bar. In the context of playing above the 12th fret, I am speaking of a slightly milder type of hyperextension of the tip joint of the first and sometimes the second finger to add stability when playing notes above the 12th fret, especially on the first string. By allowing the tip of the first finger to collapse, the string is pushed away from the edge of the fretboard. This also keeps the string from moving laterally during the execution of ornaments in high positions.

Here is a rather “dangerous” spot in Joaquin Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez with an ornament on the first string in the upper region of the fretboard:

Now watch as I demonstrate the hyperextension of the first finger and demonstrate its use in the above passage from Joaquin Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez in video clip #4:

THE UPPER BOUT IS YOUR FRIEND

One problem guitarists have in playing in the region past the 12th fret is figuring out where and how to position the left hand. It’s actually pretty simple most of the time.

First, let’s take a quick glance at guitar anatomy so we are all on the same page terminology-wise. Here is a diagram reproduced with the kind permission of the Music Educators National Conference. On the right side of the diagram just below “Heel” and just above 'Strings' it says 'Upper Bout.' That is the key part to which I am referring and is actually the lower side (closest to the floor) of the upper bout.

Don’t look at the lower side of the upper bout as an obstacle. Don’t think of it as being in the way. Instead, use the lower side of the upper bout to give your hand stability. You actually want to rest the heel of your hand on the lower side of the upper bout when playing in the upper positions past the 12th fret. (And whatever you do, don’t purchase a nylon string guitar with a cutaway unless it’s amplified and is to be used in pop groups or in clubs—they sound pretty awful without amplification).

Here is a passage from Alexandre Tansman's Mazurka in the upper region of the fretboard:

Now watch as I demonstrate how the upper bout is your very best friend in video clip #5:

First Fret Buzzing

Sometimes the difficulty of playing past the 12th fret is not so much playing in the upper regions of the fretboard but in getting there from the lower positions. Guitarists have problems adjusting their hand and wrist position as they approach the 12th fret and lower side of the upper bout.

The trick is how to change the position of the hand from its close-in-to-the-neck placement for normal playing below the 12th fret to the new position it must assume for playing past the 12th fret. The hand must gradually move away from the neck as it ascends towards and past the 12th fret. As the hand moves away from the neck and ascends on its shift, it should glide smoothly onto the lower side of the upper bout for support. The process is reversed as you shift back down below the 12th fret for normal playing.

It’s easier to show to you than describe. And here is a great little exercise to use to learn how to make the transition from positions below the 12th fret to positions above the 12th fret and the reverse. Watch video clip #6:

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

Left-Hand Thumb Position

The position of the left-hand thumb when playing in the upper regions past the 12th fret will be very different from how it is positioned when playing below the 12th fret. There are two primary positions of the thumb in the upper regions of the fretboard. The choice of which position to use is for the most part dependent on whether the fingers will be in the parallel-with-the-frets position or in the slanted position. Aside from that broad generalization, exactly how the thumb is positioned depends greatly upon the passage being played, the size of the player’s hand, and length of the fingers.

BE CERTAIN THE THUMB IS IN CONTACT WITH SOME PART OF THE GUITAR AT ALL TIMES! Never play with the thumb dangling in midair.

Watch as I demonstrate the variation of the left-hand thumb position in video clip #7:

'Body English'

Upper body and left-shoulder position will also vary from player to player when executing passages past the 12th fret. Whether the upper torso leans forward, to the left, or whether the left shoulder dips down or stays even with the right shoulder will depend on the player’s anatomy, small differences in the shape of the guitar’s body, and even the size of the guitar in relation to the size of the player’s body. For stability’s sake, the ideal would be to not vary the sitting position at all. But it would be a big mistake to adhere to a strict “the body must not move” rule if it just doesn’t work for a particular player or for a particular musical passage.

So my friends, guitar acrophobia is easily conquered:

Choose the appropriate finger/hand position
Use tip-joint hyperextension
Make the upper bout your very best friend
Smoothly adjust the left-hand position as it approaches or leaves the upper bout
Be sure the thumb is in the best place for the finger/hand position you are using
Experiment with “body English”