12 string technique
 

I recently picked up a lovely Emerald x30-12 and the sound is glorious except for a buzz that is driving me nuts.

I have finally figured out where it is coming from. On any moderate downstroke the lower 6th string will vibrate against the octave string for me.

If I use my fretting hand and pull the octave string away the buzz goes away. When I am using upstrokes of equal vigor I don't get it.

Any suggestions on techniques to help address this?

I may also look at adjusting the nut or the string slot to get a bit more separation

It does this on open string, fretted or capo'd notes.

To me, this sounds like a setup issue. I have my 12 set up well and haven’t had to change my strumming technique to avoid buzzing, just my fretting. I’d suggest taking it to your luthier/tech for a setup if you haven’t already.

Thanks, I felt like it might be something in the setup as well but being my first 12 string experience I wanted to make sure there wasn't a technique piece I'm missing.

I did tweak inter coarse string spacing slightly and that helped.

I usually prefer to do my own setup work (although in this case I may end trying the local luthier)

I will post in the repair and build section to get ideas on what to look at.

Congrats on the new 12! As said this could be a setup issue. Maybe spacing is off at the nut. If not, try a slightly larger diameter string for just the low E. I use a custom string set on my 12 for better balance and to avoid this very problem.

Thanks for the feedback. To be clear are you saying slightly larger diameter for the normal E2 string vs the octave?

Since you don’t have the problem on upstrokes, I’d try the low E octave string.

Thanks will look at that.