1st fret buzz
 
Q: I recently helped my son build a warmoth custom guitar with a floyd rose bridge. After setup everything seems nearly perfect (perhaps dumb luck) except there is a buzz on the first fret of the high E and nowhere else. Most peculiar to me is that it does not seem to matter if the action is higher or lower it buzzes either way, not a real lot but it's there.

It seems like maybe its the nut as it looks so low at that particular string and my question is can(should) this be shimmed slightly to bring up that 1 string?

Playing up the neck after fret 1 is all ok...thanks.

A: Your nut and frets should all be exactly the same height. If any fret is too low the string will buzz against the next fret. The only problem that fits the evidence on your Warmoth is that the nut is cut too low under the E string.

If your nut is made of bone or Tusc, you can fill the slot with bone dust and superglue or bone dust and epoxy, and then refile it. If it is plastic or metal you will need to shim the whole nut and then file down the other five slots. Or replace the nut and adjust all six.

Steve Mason

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