Fret Buzz: How Much You Tolerate, Is it Bad, Have you Plek'd

[Junk Yard Dog]

Just curious. I'm not well educated on setups, and I have a great luthier here. My action ends to be around between .04 - .055 on light and .06 on the heavy strings (I think that's right). I like my action low enough for some speed, but high enough for me to grip it for big bends. I'm a big bender.

Overall, my guitars play great! But, I have the infamous G string buzz on several of my guitars which average .005 relief and I play 10-52 in E and Eflat on Strats and Gibsons. I did have a former luthier that I feel cut the nuts on these a bit too much.

Anyway, my luthier says all things considered, some fret buzz can happen with my desired setups and there's no real need to replace the nuts.

It doesn't bother me playing live, there some buzz up and down the neck below the twelth fret on all three light strings and it just kind fo bugs me.

I was thinking to Plek, when I get a job again.

Just wanted to get your thoughts on some frett buzz (mine's not horrible at all, just a preference thing), what you tolerate, and if you have Pleked and noticed a huge improvement after that.

Again, all my guitars play great and the setups are awesome overall, but I'm just a bit OCD.
Cheers.

 

[stratjacket]

I can stand a hint of fret buzz, but if it is bad, I feel like it dampens the strings. Through an amp that may be more of a psychological thing, but it bugs me to think I’m not getting the full hit of a note. So I’ll raise it a bit too avoid the buzz.

I’ve had 1 guitar plek’d and it came back outstanding. It was a 7 string KxK that I couldn’t get as low as I wanted and I wanted to try plecking to see what it was like. It was worth it, guitar played like butter after.

 

[Junk Yard Dog]

I can stand a hint of fret buzz, but if it is bad, I feel like it dampens the strings. Through an amp that may be more of a psychological thing, but it bugs me to think I’m not getting the full hit of a note. So I’ll raise it a bit too avoid the buzz.

I’ve had 1 guitar plek’d and it came back outstanding. It was a 7 string KxK that I couldn’t get as low as I wanted and I wanted to try plecking to see what it was like. It was worth it, guitar played like butter after.

Sweet, brother. Congrats! Do you know what the Plek did to make the improvements? Fret level, cut a new nut, etc, etc. Cheers!

 

[SpiderWars]

If it buzzes when you play fretted notes it's not the nut. Your luthier can make a truss rod adjustment, within a small window, to account for things like lowered tunings/extra lite strings/heavy right hand/etc but can only do so much.

I had one PLEK'd guitar and it played phenomenal but it was done at Glaser Guitars which is a top notch shop. So I'm hesitant to give PLEK all the credit. But man that guitar...you'd pull off licks you don't usually nail and just stop, look at that neck, and smile. So fast and clean.

 

[stratjacket]

I can stand a hint of fret buzz, but if it is bad, I feel like it dampens the strings. Through an amp that may be more of a psychological thing, but it bugs me to think I’m not getting the full hit of a note. So I’ll raise it a bit too avoid the buzz.

I’ve had 1 guitar plek’d and it came back outstanding. It was a 7 string KxK that I couldn’t get as low as I wanted and I wanted to try plecking to see what it was like. It was worth it, guitar played like butter after.

Sweet, brother. Congrats! Do you know what the Plek did to make the improvements? Fret level, cut a new nut, etc, etc. Cheers!

Yep, fret level and there was a little bit of sprout. I was able to get the strings so low without any buzz, it felt great.
Edited to add: the guitar was pretty amazing and real quality to begin with, it wasn’t terrible when I had it plek’d, but I do think the plek made it even greater.

 

[duncan]

I don't mind some buzz, provided it doesn't noticeable stifle the sustain, and so long as I can't hear it through the amp.

 

[Monkey Man]

I don't mind some buzz, provided it doesn't noticeable stifle the sustain, and so long as I can't hear it through the amp.

This.

 

[Dave L]

A Plek isn´t magic, the purpose of the Plek is basically to make a lot of good fret jobs in as little time as possible. As often as not a good regular fret job is all that´s needed and then some. The guitar in the original post might have a hint too little relief, a hair too low bridge on the treble side or one fret that´s a smidge too high somewhere around that twelfth area. Compared to what your right hand dictates, that is, a Plek can´t make the wrong set-up for your playing and preferences work.

With that said, a guitar with any good, fresh fret job can be surprisingly much better than before.

 

[mbman]

As long as I don't hear it through the amp I'm good to go.

Martn