Anybody ever dealt with truss rod rattle/buzz?
My 2013 Ric 4003 has a buzz coming from (what sounds like) inside the neck near the heel area. Happens when I play an open E, A, or D. I can hit the back of the neck with my hand and hear a clonk in there as well.
Haven't opened it up yet. Maybe it's just a loose truss rod nut, but the neck action is good. I'd think it would be way out or twisted if one of the nuts was completely loose.
Apparently the truss rods in these things are wrapped in tape, and that tape can come loose and create a sound like this, so it just needs to be re-taped or covered in heatshrink or something. Then I see videos where people are injecting wood glue or silicone into their necks and that seems ridiculous, but I guess I've done crazier stuff to damp resonances in speaker cabinets.
Re: Small questions that don't fit anywhere
1652Nate Dort wrote: Mon Dec 11, 2023 8:15 am Anybody ever dealt with truss rod rattle/buzz?
My 2013 Ric 4003 has a buzz coming from (what sounds like) inside the neck near the heel area. Happens when I play an open E, A, or D. I can hit the back of the neck with my hand and hear a clonk in there as well.
Haven't opened it up yet. Maybe it's just a loose truss rod nut, but the neck action is good. I'd think it would be way out or twisted if one of the nuts was completely loose.
Apparently the truss rods in these things are wrapped in tape, and that tape can come loose and create a sound like this, so it just needs to be re-taped or covered in heatshrink or something. Then I see videos where people are injecting wood glue or silicone into their necks and that seems ridiculous, but I guess I've done crazier stuff to damp resonances in speaker cabinets.
It could be that the low side rod is doing all of the work and the treble side isn’t snug. Humidity just changed pretty drastically in the last month if you’re using heat in your home. My Rics move a lot seasonally. Just had to loosen rods in both my 4003 and 360.
Re: Small questions that don't fit anywhere
1653My guild has a strange note that I can hear buzz from around the neck joint or neck pickup that I cannot identify. Cant hear it plugged in but I can hear it unplugged. Its a really weird sound and it doesn't quite sound like the pickup. Never thought it might be the truss rod.Nate Dort wrote: Mon Dec 11, 2023 8:15 am Anybody ever dealt with truss rod rattle/buzz?
My 2013 Ric 4003 has a buzz coming from (what sounds like) inside the neck near the heel area. Happens when I play an open E, A, or D. I can hit the back of the neck with my hand and hear a clonk in there as well.
Haven't opened it up yet. Maybe it's just a loose truss rod nut, but the neck action is good. I'd think it would be way out or twisted if one of the nuts was completely loose.
Apparently the truss rods in these things are wrapped in tape, and that tape can come loose and create a sound like this, so it just needs to be re-taped or covered in heatshrink or something. Then I see videos where people are injecting wood glue or silicone into their necks and that seems ridiculous, but I guess I've done crazier stuff to damp resonances in speaker cabinets.
Re: Small questions that don't fit anywhere
1654You can usually hear truss rod rattle if you tap on the back of the neck with your knuckle an inch or two below the nut or near where the neck meets the body.Kniferide wrote: Mon Dec 11, 2023 12:53 pm My guild has a strange note that I can hear buzz from around the neck joint or neck pickup that I cannot identify. Cant hear it plugged in but I can hear it unplugged. Its a really weird sound and it doesn't quite sound like the pickup. Never thought it might be the truss rod.
Re: Small questions that don't fit anywhere
1655After stripping it down to check the nuts on both ends of the truss rods, I found that the rattle was actually from the loose strap peg on the upper bout.
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Oh well, it gave me an opportunity to put new strings on and give it a good cleaning. I did end up tweaking the rods to flatten the neck a bit. I'll let it settle in overnight, then adjust the intonation and string height and see if it needs any more tweaking.
I will say that the Ric double truss rod system is for the bullshit. I've owned this bass for 3 years and never had the need to mess with it, but it's janky AF. Accessing and tightening the body-end nuts is so frustrating.
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Oh well, it gave me an opportunity to put new strings on and give it a good cleaning. I did end up tweaking the rods to flatten the neck a bit. I'll let it settle in overnight, then adjust the intonation and string height and see if it needs any more tweaking.
I will say that the Ric double truss rod system is for the bullshit. I've owned this bass for 3 years and never had the need to mess with it, but it's janky AF. Accessing and tightening the body-end nuts is so frustrating.
Re: Small questions that don't fit anywhere
1656Reminds me of the time my old bass cab suddenly sounded like shit at the practice before a show. Took every speaker out to measure the impedance, ran the head through another cab, etc etc etc…and then discovered the tweeter had been accidentally switched on and that’s why it sounded like ass.Nate Dort wrote: Mon Dec 11, 2023 7:37 pm After stripping it down to check the nuts on both ends of the truss rods, I found that the rattle was actually from the loose strap peg on the upper bout.
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Re: Small questions that don't fit anywhere
1657Not a bass, but my Ric 12 string needs a truss rod adjustment twice a year. You can’t really get the truss rod cover off unless you loosen a significant number of strings, then the overall tension isn’t right so it needs to be tuned up again, then you can finally kind of get a socket in there. It’s a nightmare and now I just leave the TRC off permanently. Nice guitar otherwise.
Re: Small questions that don't fit anywhere
1658Is there a term for always looking toward the more complicated answer when troubleshooting instead of the simple one? I cant tell you how many "broken" pedals I've gotten sent back to me when the problem was a bad cable or power supply. I once spent AGES trying to fix a Premier Reverb unit, swapping all kinds of tubes and components and eventually figured out it was a shorted input jack.Nate Dort wrote: Mon Dec 11, 2023 7:37 pm I found that the rattle was actually from the loose strap peg on the upper bout.
Re: Small questions that don't fit anywhere
1659"overcomplicate" is probably the closest thing I can think of that fits the brief. Feels like German language would have the lock on an actual word though for multiple reasons.
I deal w/ this a lot in my day job where techs list off a huge slew of deep-dive troubleshooting attempts to fix computer issues and at the end I'm like "but did you fully shut down and restart the machine" and that ends up resolving the issue.
In fairness though, I have certainly done the same thing.
I deal w/ this a lot in my day job where techs list off a huge slew of deep-dive troubleshooting attempts to fix computer issues and at the end I'm like "but did you fully shut down and restart the machine" and that ends up resolving the issue.
In fairness though, I have certainly done the same thing.
Re: Small questions that don't fit anywhere
1660I have so many examples of this, but the first that comes to mind was couple years ago when I replaced the pickups in a tele and pulled apart a Rat pedal all because I didn't know that those coily guitar cables from the 60s cause a huge loss of treble. There was nothing wrong with the pickups or the pedal. I sure felt stupid.
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