Neck issues across the board..

[Lfalex v1.1]

As per the title.

All but the Vigier have picked up a buzz at the second fret on the G string. Even the NS Upright has it, as has the Chapman stick on its bass E string (the thinnest one) Never encountered it before.

Wondered if it's a combination of my preferred set-up plus the weather? The house is cool at the moment, we don't have central heating and I'm cleaning condensation off the inside of the windows every morning..

The Warwicks can be fixed with a tweak of the just-a-nut. The Stick has a similar facility. 

I raised the action on the Ibanez, though more than I'd have liked, and that cured it.

Before I bust out the bigger Allen keys, would a slight slacken of the truss rod have much effect so far down the neck? (and that'll inevitably cause a higher action around the middle of the neck which isn't that desirable)

Any other ideas?

Thanks in advance,  Alex.

 

[ezbass]

I occasionally get a 2nd - 4th fret rattle on one of my basses (certainly a seasonal/temperature thing), a small adjustment of the truss rod always sorts this.

[Woodinblack]

1 hour ago, Lfalex v1.1 said:

All but the Vigier have picked up a buzz at the second fret on the G string. Even the NS Upright has it, as has the Chapman stick on its bass E string (the thinnest one) Never encountered it before.

Wondered if it's a combination of my preferred set-up plus the weather? The house is cool at the moment, we don't have central heating and I'm cleaning condensation off the inside of the windows every morning..

Must be that if everything has changed.

If it is that there isn't much you can do apart from wait until it gets warmer. The truss rod is your only choice if raising the bridge just makes it uncomfortable.

It has to be said, there are advantages to a railboard!

[Bigguy2017]

Most of my basses get a quarter turn on the truss rod, sometime in spring and autumn, as the weather changes...

[4000]

Truss rod adjustment, not saddles or nut. If the neck settles back the first thing you’ll notice is buzz at the nut end. 

[4000]

Truss rod adjustment, not saddles. If the neck settles back the first thing you’ll notice is buzz at the nut end, which will be more obvious if your nut is very low. 

It sounds obvious, but your bridge is extremely unlikely to have suddenly moved across all your instruments. Any time there is any movement like that, the truss rod is the first place you should look. 

With regards to the action, if the neck has backbowed a bit the action is likely to have dropped a fraction; putting relief back in should just take it back to where it was before, as long as you don’t overdo it. 

Two other things; if it’s colder the neck will likely tend towards backbow, and the rod does most of its work in the first 2/3 or so of the neck. 
 

Ok, that’s weird! Sorry for the kind-of double post.

Edited February 4, 2021 by 4000

[Lfalex v1.1]

10 minutes ago, 4000 said:

With regards to the action, if the neck has backbowed a bit the action is likely to have dropped a fraction; putting relief back in should just take it back to where it was before, as long as you don’t overdo it.

Thanks for the help. Just to clarify; 

More relief is more curvature, achieved by loosening the truss rod.

Less relief is less curvature, achieved by tightening the truss rod.

So, by loosening the rod, the strings will (subtly) pull the far end of the neck upward, raising the 2nd fret relative to the third (upon which the string is buzzing)

Presumablythe reason that it's happening on G strings is that they run a lower action than the others. 

[4000]

8 minutes ago, Lfalex v1.1 said:

Thanks for the help. Just to clarify; 

More relief is more curvature, achieved by loosening the truss rod.

Less relief is less curvature, achieved by tightening the truss rod.

So, by loosening the rod, the strings will (subtly) pull the far end of the neck upward, raising the 2nd fret relative to the third (upon which the string is buzzing)

Presumablythe reason that it's happening on G strings is that they run a lower action than the others. 

Yep. The way I always think of it is like this; the tension of the strings pulls the neck forward, thus creating more relief. Tightening the rod counteracts the pull of the strings, creating less relief.
If there is insufficient relief, e.g. backbow, you would need to slacken the truss rod to add more relief. 

Just make sure you know which way your rods go, as it’s not always righty-tighty, left-loosey, even if that’s the case 99% of the time.😉

Edited February 4, 2021 by 4000