Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Why does my guitar string rattle?

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Sunday Mor


On my guitar (an epiphone les paul) the 6th string rattles when you play from about the 8th fret onwards, unless you press pretty hard. Another string has a point like that but its only in one fret. What could cause this and is it fixable? I can't remember if it's happened since I got it or not.


Answer
Right - this could be a number of things.

Is the neck straight? To check you should hold the guitar up like a rifle and look from the tuning pegs down the neck. If the frets don't look parallel to each other then the neck might be twisted.

Next. Press the offending string down at the last fret with one hand and at the 2nd with the other. Now look at the space under the string. Are any other frets touching it. By the way, the neck should have a slight concave bow.
If a fret is catching the string it could mean that the fret is too high and needs to be stoned down (filed) or that the neck needs relief - which involves tightening or loosening the truss rod. Best ask a pro about that though as you only want to be making small adjustments there.

Other possible cause - the nut could be badly cut. The string saddle may have worked loose. The tuning peg may have come loose - there's a large nut around the shaft of the peg, check out if it's tight.
You may have too much string wrapped around the tuning peg. Only ever put two turns at most. That will also help with tuning stability and tone.



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