Mystery truss rod rattle under the 1st fret!

[Jerry Ryan]

I have a guitar in the shop (a D-18 clone 'made in India' only marking) that has a functional truss rod with a rattle under the 1st fret. Truss rod works, it tightens and you can remove the cap nut (inside guitar) and the rod does not come out.

It sounds like washers or something similar under the fretboard that is loose. the rattle does not change with the rod loose or tight.

Anybody know whats in there? I'm guessing some kind of an end assembly that has loose parts. Can I inject glue into the rod end space thru the 1st fret slot? Or just forget it and have the owner not shake it?

[Len Biglin]

I would be checking the machine head washers , they have a sort of ventrilloquism that makes the rattle come from the neck . Len

[Pierre-Antoine Roiron]

That would be my first guess too. I made a lot of fixes of "broken trussrod making a terrible noise" (according to my customers) by tightening a loose tuner.

[Tom Krebs]

Is the fretboard seam separating?

[Russell Vance]

Yep, I'm with Len on this one......where the noise is bears no relationship to where it originates - the big buzz list that is on the Frets site is the go here.......I once went nuts trying to find a similar thing on a martin vintage job ( the washer under the vintage machine head ferrule has a 10 thou gap and took off resonating at certain similar frequencies all over the fret board)...not to mention the Strat that came with the 'strap locks' hanging off the strap pins that sounded like a train wreck around the bridge area .......or the washer on the earth wire screw of a pickup system that was dancing up and down the thread and sounded like it was coming from the headstock. Tightening the trussrod nut should make most of this go away - but if it is the truss rod and you do want to put some lacquer or glue into the rod slot it's sometimes easier to take out a fingerboard dot and drill through the aluminium box channel that some rods sits in and inject lacquer via a sizeable syringe (easier than taking out a fret). Otherwize, take it for a walk ....deep into the woods....Rusty.

[Dave Fox]

If it doesn't go away when you tighten the truss rod, I'd first ignore the truss rod. The tension should pretty much end it. I'd go with others that say look at the tuners. I've found more buzzes there.... loose washer, loose button screw, loose button, rattly gear, etc... Also check the strap buttons if you have them. Do you keep a capo on the neck or peghead--could you have something loose there? Check to see that you don't have a loose fret itself, and also check all of your wound strings-do you have a broken winding? Maybe since it was made in India you have a sit-tar (snicker). Let us know what you do find......

[Jerry Ryan]

OK guys,

I read the Ventriloquist reference, along with most comments sending me to the tuners. I checked closely, Cheap tuners! Popped off the covers and sure enough, the gears were rattling.

The sound still seem to be coming from the neck! But it sure isn't. Having a truss rod issue after replacing an bridge plate installed with epoxy would have put this little guitar over the edge of my skill development!

Thanks!

[sugeng supriyadi]

Yes, I guess so. There is a piece of metal that placed in the middle of U-channel (its function is to make the bending part start to right bend direction) was glue-off, so it can moves in the channel and make a vibration sound if the guitar playing. I think you better to open the fretboard and fix it.