Persistant buzzes/pings
 

Yesterday an out-of-town customer (Steve) dropped off his Taylor 210CE, complaining of buzzes. Since he was from some distance away, we made arrangements that I would work on it while he ran some errands, saving him another trip to pick it up.

The main buzz was with the B string on the 4th and 5th frets. I was able to reduce the buzz, but it persisted. When Steve returned from his errands, we worked on it for another hour. When I played it, the buzzes were barely noticeable, but his playing style seemed to bring them out. The sound was more of a ping than a buzz, and it seemed to come more from the bridge area, occurring when the B string was fretted at the 4th and 5th fret. We finally concluded that I wasn't going to be able to do much more, and he left, a bit frustrated, but happy that at least it wasn't as bad as before.

When he got home he called Taylor to ask them what he might do. The Taylor tech went through a fairly extensive "try this" list, all of which we had already tried. Steve jokingly said that he was strongly considering trading it in on a Martin. The tech replied that he would likely run into the same problem. All guitars have a resonate frequency where they will make some unwanted noise.... whether it is a $200 guitar or a $2000 guitar, and the B string was the most common culprit.

Now I've run into this sort of thing before... quite often in fact. But that ALL guitars have a resonate frequency that will cause buzzes/pings, and that there is not a lot that can be done about it... It seems to me that a large company like Taylor, that invests heavily in research and design, would come up with some way to solve this issue if it is something that plagues all guitars.

One is rather accustomed to encountering the observation that a T****R's tone can be characterized as: thin and reedy.

Apparently, we now need to add yet another phrase: Thin and pingy.

Did anyone check the neck relief? Maybe too little? How about action height? I guess it's all been gone through but thought I'd inquire anyway.

The fact you say customer, will mean i will not state the obvious as i assume you should be capable of that part.

Fretting at the 4/5 leads me to think that maybe the shim split used in the neck fitment is incorrect, if someone mucks the split up it can create a hump at the 14th area which would give consistent results to the one your finding.

Alterantively a fret level is required, mimicking the neck shape under tension as the neck may have a twist or warp

Steve

Don't agree with that. Resonant frequencies can cause wolf notes and they're mostly related to the Helmholtz
frequency (or some multiple thereof) of the guitar body cavity and heard on the lower strings (not the B string).
Of course there may be some loose hardware setting things off.

I would look at the saddle. A flat spot under the string can cause pinging.