Buzzing

[weathermandolin]

A few weeks ago, I took a day off from playing. The next time I took the mando out of the case and played, I noticed a buzz any time that I loudly played an open string or loudly played a note on the first fret. Notes on the second fret and beyond were clear. The buzz is only audible if I play forte or louder and is most noticable on the G and D strings.

I had lowered the bridge a few weeks before this started happening, and have recently returned it to its original height and it is still buzzing. I bought two dampits and put them in the case for a few days and noticed no change.

Is this something that I can fix on my own?

If anyone has advice about this, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,

Jason

[John Zimm]

I've had the same problem with mine this winter as it has been so dry. I am currently making a new nut for mine (out of a piece of bone I got for my dog to chew on), and I plan to make is slightly higher then the original nut. Otherwise maybe try raising the bridge a little bit. Can you tell where the buzz is coming from? Maybe on second thought it isn't the string height but something else. I had a guitar that used to buzz when I played the low-G on the e-string, and it turned out to be a loose tuner knob. Go figure, eh?

-John.

[Dfyngravity]

Let me ask a question. Is there an adjustable truss rod? It sounds like your neck isn't straight. A couple years ago I had a Kentucky 620. I took it with me on a trip and left it in the car for a few(6) hours and I'll never make that horrible mistake again. Needless to say the neck warped(bowed) because it was winter time and two because the truss rod wasn't adjusted correctly. Although I did fix it. I just took it into a local guitar/music shop and the guy adjusted the truss rod and raised the bridge. After winter passed I was able to lower the bridge back down and the neck was fixed. So my sugesstion is to check out the neck and if there is a truss rod I would get the adjusted. If it wasn't buzzing before hand then you should be able to fix it. Just keep those humidifiers in the case so it doesn't dry out any more. That's one of the worst things for any wooden instrument. I hope you get it fixed.

[weathermandolin]

Thanks for the input guys.

To answer Dfyn's question, yes there is an adjustable truss rod (it's an MK Legacy Deluxe). So that very well may be the trouble. My next upgrade is to get a new set of tuners, new bridge, new nut, and new tailpiece. I figure I can have the luthier do a set up after he has installed all of those. Hopefully it will come back sounding better than new.

Thanks again for the advice.