Question for luthiers - why do so many guitars buzz at the 1st string 12th fret?

[phavriluk]

Bill, I've seen this, too. On my own builds, I cheat: I use .043" high frets up to the body joint and .037" high frets over the body. Every little bit helps.

[sinistral]

Sure, it happens, but on 93.75% of “high-end” guitars pulled randomly off the wall at Carter’s? Really?

I tried out a lot of these guitars recently in one sitting (way more than 15), and don’t recall any of them having fret buzz on notes played around or above the 12th fret:

[Bill Kraus]

Originally Posted by phavriluk

Bill, I've seen this, too. On my own builds, I cheat: I use .043" high frets up to the body joint and .037" high frets over the body. Every little bit helps.

Great idea!.

[Russ C]

If there’s a next time perhaps sight down the fingerboard and see if there’s an upward bend (ski jump) at the body as others have reasoned. I agree that’s extremely unlikely on 14 out of 15 guitars but higher level guitars are not exempt and those that haven’t sold may be more likely to have an issue like that. More likely than every 13th or 14th fret is high.
Still, I’ve never seen that many in one place but if it’s not you there’s got to be a common fault in the guitars because 12th frets do not buzz worse for any other reason.

[LAPlayer]

Originally Posted by DDW

Seems like the common thing in those 15 guitars is - you. Would someone else playing those guitars on the same day experience the same thing? Everyone has a different style, perhaps yours requires a bit more clearance on the 1st string.

I was going to ease into this so.... thank you. I've played professionally for decades and have played almost every decent production guitar as well as many of the top custom builders and have never thought that to be an issue. It could very well be that your arm/hand position at the 12th might be causing the issue. Otherwise it sounds like a common set up issue with that store.