Rising toungue causing fret buzz ?

[Len Biglin]

Hi , everyone , I have been having trouble with a Norman acoustic guitar . It has fret buzz around 5 , 6 , 7th frets , but the action is quite high and frets level , however it needs a reset (bolt-on) and so has the rising toungue on body . The high area is at the octave of the buzzy area , so Im thinking the maximum excursion of the string travel is hitting there . Has anyone had this experience ? it makes sense but in 14 years i have not seen it before .

[Greg Mirken]

Well, now you have. Once the neck angle (and possibly relief) is corrected and the saddle raised if necessary the buzz will go away.

[Mark A. Kane]

And be careful about attempting a neck reset until you are sure it can be done. Lasido changed the neck joint about 10 years ago from one akin to the old Taylor joint to a bolt on with the FB extension glued to a tenon, set into the top and impossible to extract. It's unfortunate they changed the design. It's easy to tell the old joint from the new: There is a significant block that runs under the FB extension from the soundhole to the neck block on the newer joint.

[Len Biglin]

Yeh , found the tenon and the block ! Thanks Mark , I have the extension loose and the heel loose , but the neck won't budge ! At this stage I'm wondering if I might reset the extension and leave the heel alone , I still have plenty of saddle , so the angle is not so bad .

[Len Biglin]

Well Godin replied , the neck is a mortise with epoxy , and cant be removed (no apology). so I sanded the underside of the fretboard extension , and reglued w titebond and now have a slight drop-off over the body . When I tune her up I let you know how she plays .

[Hesh Breakstone]

Often with the creative use of a fret dress one can knock the extension frets down getting rid of that ski ramp and buzzing source.  Also with some creative fret dressing one can concentrate on the frets in the first 3 positions thusly increasing the neck angle as well.  This can belay, for a while, the need for a neck reset by again increasing neck angle.

Concentrating on leveling 1 - 12 into one plane with more set to the neck angle and then creating fall-away from 12 onward might breath some new life into this one for a while.

[Len Biglin]

OK the neck now looks completely normal , but still has fret buzz at 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 on A and D and a little on E6 so its not the high toungue .I have straightened and levelled the frets again . No joy . Plenty releif and action .

[Hesh Breakstone]

Len would you please let us know the action measured at the 12th fret in 64ths" with the nut slots properly cut, relief acceptable, and the instrument strung to pitch?

[Len Biglin]

Its 3/32 E to E with 11 to 52's and releif about 0.010" , no buzz on E B or G strings , and I should correct the extension is now flat , not dropping off . Thanks for your interest Hesh. Len

[Len Biglin]

Tim , thanks for your interest , there is no fret buzz until fret 4 and that takes the nut out of the equation . It is just one of those guitars that doesnt play fair .