buzzing B string

[Tom Hemeon]

I have a Larrivee 000-50 that buzzes open and on the 3rd, 4th and 5th frets. Had it back to the Long & McQuade tech twice and it came back the same as it was when I sent it. Any ideas? I put a small chunk of rubber under the e and b strings at the neck and did not detect any difference.

[Ned Knepp]

Hi Tom.

 I will tell you that buzzing is something that comes up here fairly often and that the answer is almost always the same;   Look here.   

A lot of things can cause buzzing up to and including the way you play. This set of pages is pretty much the book on buzz diagnosis. You didn't say what your skill level is in regard to working on your guitar so there are some things there that you probably shouldn't attempt unless you are fairly well versed in guitar setup procedures. You can certainly learn a lot and perhaps find something that will help and maybe it will help you zero in on some area to ask about. As it is, none of us can help you much without having the guitar in hand or hearing you play it. 

 

[Paul Verticchio]

Hi Tom.

In addition to the spot on advice Ned gave you, here's a couple more suggestions:

IF you're the original owner of this extremely nice instrument, you should negotiate to have the guitar returned to Larrivee for warranty work. It's sad to hear that you are not satisfied with L & McQ's work. You are entitled to receive acceptable attention, service and work. Let the service manger there know about it.

It's very common for new guitars, even premium instruments, to need a fret level, recrown and polish. The symptoms you describe points me in that direction. The cost of this service may be covered by the factory, but only an authorized Larrivee dealer can answer that with authority.

It's obvious you are not qualified to tackle this yourself (basing that on the rubber under the strings statement) as it takes years of experience AND specialized tools to do that task well. That task is akin to guitar micro-surgery and deals with tolerances measured in thousands of an inch or CM and hundreds of deep knowledge facts that must be "on tap" before the job can be started.

I urger you to find another authorized Larrivee service center or deal directly with the factory. The factory will want to hear about L & M's service performance as well as the issue with their instrument. The folks at Larrivee are usually great and have bent over backwards to make things right with their customers. I hope you have similar good luck with them.

Best of luck and let us know how it all turns out.?