The Hub

A customer recently had me level the frets on their guitar which I did. It went well and was a straightforward task. I checked the frets before, during, and after the operation and I was satisfied with how it was playing when it left my shop. I received a message the day after the customer brought it home that the guitar was still buzzing, particularly on the E, A, and D strings. Now I'm of the opinion that brand new strings tend to be "lively", and have a propensity for vibrate and rattle the most when they're new, and over time they mellow out and settle in. I told him that I thought it would be best for him to play the guitar for a week, and to see where the guitar is after that and he agreed. I contacted him yesterday and asked how things were and he wanted me to take another look at the guitar which I did this afternoon.

After looking at the guitar, checking to see if the frets were level (they are), and making some slight adjustments, I'm very confident that there are not any mechanical issues with the instrument. I decided to put new strings on a similar guitar that I own, set them up about the same way and play each of them unplugged, one after the other, side by side. The results were pretty similar, maybe the customers guitar "buzzed" a bit more, but I'm left to chalk it up to the natural mechanics of the fretted guitar. Depending on how hard I strike the string, I can make it buzz, but I feel this is more to do with the vibration of the string and not an issue with the frets.

I don't quite know what to tell the customer at this point. He's under the impression that another guitar that he bought from me which I also levelled the frets on, doesn't buzz as much.

In summary, I think that either what the customer is dealing with is either the natural mechanics of the instrument, or possibly an issue with technique, where he's perhaps a heavy handed player who is also sensitive to the buzzing phenomenon. In the past (and currently) I've tied myself up it knots when it comes to guitars and "buzzing" issues. Any advice? Have any of you gone down this road before? Thanks!

-David