String Rattle
 

Hey guys,

Just wanting to know how can I eliminate string rattle on my acoustic.
I had a new set of Elixir's put on it yesterday and there is a little bit of rattle on the Low E and the A strings.

is it just a matter of getting the action adjusted or something like that? any advice is appreciated. Thanks !

if it's bottom 2 strings rattling then most probably action a tad bit low. adjust the struss rod.

That's one thing you could try, if it's actually low action that's causing the problem. Could be action, could be neck relief, could be humidity, could be a bad fret, could be that you put on lighter strings than what came off and you need the guitar adjusted for that.

Because you said you had the new strings put on, rather than putting them on yourself, I'm guessing you are not technically inclined when it comes to guitars. No shame in that, not everyone wants to tinker. But it does mean you're unlikely to be able to diagnose the problem on your own. Take it to a luthier, show him (or her) the problem, and get the guitar professionally set up.

The truss rod is not for adjusting action. You adjust action at the nut and saddle. The truss rod is for adjusting neck relief. Action can change as a side effect of a relief adjustment, but you don't change the relief just for its effect on the action.

If your fret board is straight and a little truss rod tweak takes care of the problem that is much easier then shimming or replacing the saddle or nut. I would always look at this first.

A thought
 

My impression is that OP had the strings changed, not that he changed them...

Yes, I think everyone has that impression. That is what he said. What is your point?

No argument, but then you haven't changed the action to fix the problem, you've changed the relief to fix it.

It's important to keep the distinction clear, because a lot of people mistakenly believe that the truss rod is there for adjusting action, and just grab a hex key and make a mess of things.

OP needs to ask himself if he wants to start down the rabbit hole of guitar actions and setups. No shame in preferring to simply play the guitar rather than working on it.

If he wants to get into it, I suggest he read the Charles Tauber white paper on guitar setups:

http://charlestauber.com/luthier/Res...May%202015.pdf

Else, he should have a good guitar tech setup his guitar.

I’m with both of these guys. I suspect that whoever changed strings for the OP put a lighter-gauge set on than the set that was taken off, and a TR tweak might well be the answer to correct neck-relief which changed as a result.

BUT, reading the OP’s post, I’m guessing that he is inexperienced in guitar set-up or tweaking, and that taking the guitar to a decent luthier/tech could save problems in the long run.

The usual disclaimers apply......IMHO, YMMV etc.

Everything else being the same string rattle after a string change is usually due to using a lower tension string. It also could be due to a change in humidity obviously. That’s been my experience anyway. I can usually tweak the truss rod a bit and it goes away, at least until the humidity changes again. ;)

Be very careful if you tighten the truss rod. Turn only 1/4 turn at a time. Don't over-tighten or you could break the neck. If you are not comfortable changing strings on your own I would not attempt adjusting the truss rod on your own. Any setup adjustments should be done by someone who has experience doing that .

Since this seems to be a problem you have today that you didn't have yesterday, the first thing I'd check is whether the strings are seated properly. If one of them was set so that the ball end isn't tight against the bridge, your problem could be a simple as snugging it up after the pressure is relieved.

This is way too big an adjustment in my opinion/experience.

For example, on my new D28, relief was ~.010", which is high for my liking. It took only about 1/8 of a turn to decrease relief to .004 or .005".

I don't wanna get too deep in the technical details - the white paper PDF I linked to above is a MUST READ for anybody that is going to adjust a guitar's setup. Not that it's so difficult, but you must have your brain wrapped around what you're actually doing to the guitar with any given adjustment.

Anyway, I think if you're going to make adjustments, you need to quantify what you've done. You don't necessarily need a bunch of tools, but you DO need to gage what you've done.

For example, when adjusting relief, you should look at how much relief you're starting with - so that after adjustment, you can look again and see how much change you've made. For relief, this can be as simple as fretting the first fret with index finger of your fretting hand, and then 14th fret with pinky of your picking hand. Then you can use your index on the picking hand to fret the 7th fret and gage how high the string sits above that fret. Essentially, there should be clearance between string and 7th fret of about one or two sheets of notebook paper (one sheet of paper is ~0.004")

It’s winter and if you live in a climate that requires heating, it’s likely you have low indoor RH. Low RH can result in buzz. Perhaps your tech left your guitar in a very dry location overnight. I think the best approach here is to put a mirror in the sound hole so you can see the ball ends of the string and make sure they are tight against the surface of the bridge plate. Then, leave the guitar in a humidified location and see what happens. If all this fails to solve your problem, bring it back to your tech.

Hey thanks for the info. and yes i will admit i know nothing about the technical aspect of guitars im a reasonably good player but in terms of setting up guitars i know nothing. (which is why im on this forum site so i can learn from people who know a thing or two...)

I know string rattle means something needs altering a bit.... I'm learning bits and pieces about it now though and just watched a very informative video on truss rod adjustments. I'm taking it to my local music store in the next couple of days to get it in for a proper setup.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFlIFN8oPDw