4 Strings Posted January 10, 2010 Share Posted January 10, 2010 I bought a 'J&D Brothers' Precision copy for very little on the dreaded ebay. The body is made from solid alder, the neck from a very nice piece of maple, lovely rosewood fingerboard and a great sound from J and P pickups. Plays beautifully and I have really enjoyed using it. Not a Fender, but could easily be comparable for such little money. The plan is to leave it my church as a cheap bass for general (and my) use. However, it buzzes badly on the 6th and 7th fret on the G string and nowhere else. The neck appears to be straight (did the holding the string against the 1st and last fret and there is a bow of about 1-1.5mm in the middle on all strings. I have gone over the frets with a long straight edge and all looked perfect. I then used a short straight edge, to compare individual frets and, sure enough, the 8th fret stood a little high owards the G edge of the neck. I carefully dressed it down with a fine stone until the straight edge (across 3 frets) didn't rock. Took a couple of hours on this. I have also slackened the truss rod a little (tightening has the effect of raising the middle of the neck and made matters worse). Slackening helped but means the A string in particular is beginning to buzz on the very top frets. This has all helped but not solved the issue. Any ideas, anyone, would be greatly appreciated as this is all that is stopping what appears to be a great effort from the Chinese manufacturer being a very nice guitar. Many thanks for reading this far! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Protium Posted January 11, 2010 Share Posted January 11, 2010 How bad is the buzz? Is it definitely the frets? Have you tried looking at the frets lower than the 6th and 7th? One time we took ages looking above the fretted note when it was actually coming from between the fret and the nut... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4 Strings Posted January 12, 2010 Author Share Posted January 12, 2010 It's quite a bad buzz, almost making the notes unplayable. Good thought, I've had a listen towards the nut and all is ok there. It seems as thought there is a dip in the fret board around the 6/7th frets on the G side, but my straight edges appear to tell me differently. The 8th fret was definitely as little high and the stoing has helped, but it still buzzes quite badly. (It had quite a high action when I bought it - the action is quite low now, except for the G string!) If it was a Fender I'd take it to the experts, it just that for such a cheap guitar and its intended use I hadn't budgetted to pay for professional services. Any ideas gratefully received. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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