GS Mini

[ken roberts]

GS Mini (acoustic only). High E string much more predominant than the others. Almost sounds like a resonator. Tried three different brands of strings, and tried putting a small piece of leather between the string and the saddle. Nothing seems to help. anybody have any ideas? Thanks

[Mark McLean]

Ken

Tell us a bit more about this symptom.  Is it only sounding funny when you play the string open (i.e. only when you play an E note), or does it happen when you fret a note on that string?

If it is happening all the way up the string it could be a rattling on a high fret (high frets are usually noticed most on the treble strings because they have lower action).  This really does give that "resonator" sound and would be my first suspicion for your problem, based on what you have said so far. 

But there are many other important causes of buzz and the perfect place to start is the Buzz Diagnostics page on frets.com

If it is only happening with the open E note you might have a wolf tone.  Does it happen with E notes elsewhere on the fretboard?  It happens when the natural resonating frequency of the "main air" or the soundboard happens to be at the frequency of that note, so that they vibrate in sympathy with tht frequency. This often causes dull or dead notes, but it can also manifest as a note that jumps out at you. There are various ways of fixing that, but give us a bit more information about what is going on so that we can get the right diagnosis. 

Mark

[ken roberts]

It is very noticeable to me when fretting a G on the high E string. Otherwise the instrument is very well balanced.It is not  buzzing. You described it best when you said the note "jumps out at you". It doesn't happen anywhere else. on the fretboard, and it doesn't happen when the string is played open.  The guitar is a Holden Village that I bought new a few months ago. Other than this problem it is a remarkable guitar. Many thanks for your help. Ken 

[Paul Verticchio]

Ken,

Given the "leather under the string at the saddle solution", could you give us a brief update as to your experience repairing instruments. 

It will help us tailor a response to your knowledge base & skill level.

Also, if you're the original owner, you may have a warranty claim.

Also, have you had a competent technician evaluate the problem?. Having "eyes & hands on" the guitar  trumps forum based discussions for irritating issues like this one.

Could you post a picture of the headstock so we can see how you wind your strings?  I have a suspicion that may be the cause of your problem (not enough break over the nut).

Thanks.

[ken roberts]

I have no experience repairing instruments. I did the leather thing thinking that it might absorb some of the vibrations.  I'll try to post a picture. All the strings have about 3 winds around the post. looking at the E string, It looks a though it has less break over the nut than the others. Many thanks, Ken

[Paul Verticchio]

Are the winds 'down' toward the headstock or 'up' over the string hole?

They should wind 'down' towards the headstock.

[Mark McLean]

Ken, if you run through the Buzz list you might be able to identify the cause and fix it - and at the very least you will learn a lot of useful stuff about guitar set-up for future reference. 

Buzz from poor break angle at the nut or saddle is common.  Buzz against frets is common if the action is low or if the neck relief is incorrect.  All of these are things that an experienced guitar tech will identify very quickly if they have the instrument in their hands.  So, like Paul said, it would be very worthwhile for you to get a professional to have a look at it. 

[ken roberts]

Buzz list has lots of good info on it. Many thanks for your help. This a great site. Best, Ken

[ken roberts]

Strings are wound correctly although I will put a few more turns around the post to get more break angle

Many thanks, Ken 

[Hesh Breakstone]

We had a similiar occurrence with a client's GS Mini where he was getting a bit of buzz and imbalance on the B string.  Dealing with this one was more an exercise in reverse engineering some things that the player had done and how the thing was manufactured.

For example the player had saved strings from another instrument and placed them on the GSM.  Of course the break points over the saddle were different so the used strings did not break cleanly over the saddle sending the vibrating wave over the saddle top...

Once that was eliminated the thing still had parts of the problem.

In the end what helped the most was the fret board extension was kicked up ever so slightly, think ski ramp.  A different tongue shim helped but the problem still existed.  So we did a fret dress and milled in about .010" of fall-away over the extension and that eliminated the problem.  Go figure....

I'm interested in what your style/attack is like or more specifically how aggressive you are.  GSMs can handle mediums and many of the folks that I know who have them are fairly hard hitters if they still use the mediums.  It's a small box so one of the ways to compensate for the lower volume that a GSM produces due to it's size is to play harder and this is how I have seen some folks playing them.

Combine this with not enough break angle for the G string over the nut AND/OR perhaps a G string nut slot that is filed too shallow or has a hump in it and the vibrating wave of the string might breach the G nut slot.

Solution would be two fold IMHO with refiling the nut slot or at least checking it out well and then using all of the extra G string that you can to fully use the tuner post with windings going all the way to the peg head in an effort to increase the break angle.  Might be worth a try.  More windings on the G string is something that you can do yourself and see if there is any improvement.