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Is something wrong with my guitar?
So I inherited a Yamaha sc 300 from the 80’s when my dad died in 2020 it and became my first guitar. I started consistently playing guitar a year ago and by no means would I call myself a professional or even experienced in luthiership, but I took the guitar to a local music store to get it set up for maintenance and what not. The jack needed to be tightened and the neck needed adjusted in some way I’m not super familiar with. I got it back and only recently was able to play that specific guitar. (Finals season in the college of business). I have noticed now a ringing/humming sound that emits from the guitar even when not plugged up. I think it is coming from the strings making slight contact with the frets even when not being fretted. Like as if the strings were too close to the frets. I have tried tightening the strings but out of fear of them snapping on me I haven’t tried tightening too far. I have a tuner that says they are in tune and everything, but the sound still remains. Bar chords sound terrible but only on that guitar. Is there something wrong with my guitar or am I just a wuss for not tightening them more?
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5 Replies
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Well, you can’t really tighten them beyond them being in tune. Sounds to me like you may need to check if the frets are level with each other or if the nut slots need some attention. All of which should have been detected by the guy in the store you took it too. It’s hard to help without actually seeing the guitar, but my bet is that some of the fret’s or just one of them is too high. Or that the trussrod needs a tweak. 😎✌🏽
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This reply was modified 1 year ago by Notecracker.
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Thank you!
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This reply was modified 1 year ago by
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Could be a couple of things.
– The strings could be set too low. An adjustment at the saddle can fix it.
– As @notecracker mentioned, high or uneven frets. This can be more expensive to fix.
– The truss rod may need adjusting. The truss rod controls how much relief (or bow) the neck has. Generally, the rod will need adjusting a couple of times a year, depending on the climate you live in. The neck should have a slight amount of forward bow. It’s usually measured around the 5-7th fret with a feeler gauge. Some guitars can work great without relief, others need more.
– The worst case scenario would be a warped or twisted neck. That’s almost never fixable.
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There is one other thing that @notecracker mentioned. The nut, if not slotted even where the string makes a solid single point of contact, can buzz like a sitar. This is caused by the string making contact in multiple areas in the nut slot.
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Sorry, I just thought of one more thing. If the truss rod becomes loose or damaged, it can vibrate creating some unpleasant undertones.
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