Eliminating buzzing/sympathetic vibrations in an archtop

[pingu]

A student's Electromatic Gretsch was buzzing the other day - I figured out it was the toggle switch. The end of the toggle (the bit you grab with your fingers) is metal and screws on, not a molded piece of plastic or rubber that you commonly get. So the metal end of the toggle was loose on the thread - tightened it with my fingers clockwise and no more buzz. I stumbled onto it after exhausting all other options like pickup mounts and pickguard etc. A victorious moment.

Isn't it GREAT when you find the source of the buzz tho !!

[Phil in London]

blocking the ears completely removes the buzzing, i've heard.

hehehe... yes, using ear plugs in the ears might reduce buzzing... I was more thinking of putting them between pickup and pickup ring... (I know you know I know... etc) ;-)

[sj1]

Persistent buzzing, even after careful truss rod adjustment and bridge setup, can drive you crazy and completely ruin your experience with a guitar.

The more expensive the guitar, the more upsetting it can be!

Where is the buzzing coming from? It can be very hard to tell for sure.

Here is the story of how I eliminated the BUZZ from my PRS 594 Hollowbody II -

I recently bought this guitar online, actually the most expensive guitar I've ever purchased. Though it was beautiful, carefully shipped, undamaged, priced within my budget (barely!), and arrived safely (whew!), there was one ruinous problem: BUZZ .

I can imagine that this was why the seller sold it. I almost turned around and sold it myself. For my purposes, the buzzing made the guitar unplayable. I felt terrible about the money I'd spent. I had taken a chance with eyes open, and this time the outcome was a disaster, or so it seemed.

I let the guitar acclimate, I tweaked the truss rod and the bridge setup to seeming perfection, yet still the BUZZ remained and I could not pin down the cause. The pickup area seemed possibly implicated, but using the ole "finger on the PU" or "cardboard jammed in PU" seemed to only slightly affect the BUZZ but not eliminate it.

Since all my efforts to determine the cause for sure were unsuccessful, I reasoned that my only hope was to take remedial action on faith. So I did.

Here is where serendipity enters the story.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, I happened to have here in the house a sheet of very thin rubber that I had purchased for the purpose of making a DIY mask brace. ( DIY Mask Brace from Rubber Sheet Downloadable Template
– Fix The Mask ) This was approximately the right thickness for wedging between the PUs and the PU frames, and I reasoned that this rubber would be a superior vibration absorber as compared to the typical wedged piece of cardboard, which sometimes works but did not in this case.

Since the rubber is somewhat floppy, it was not possible to simply insert it by pushing it into the narrow slot between a PU and its frame. The only way to do it was to disassemble the PUs from the face of the guitar, after which, with access to both the front and rear sides, it was possible to slightly widen the opening(s) with finger pressure and insert the (cut to size) rubber.

My goal was to insert as much rubber as I could, which turned out to be one long piece and one short piece (on each PU) along the top and bottom of the PUs. It was not possible to insert rubber on the sides as they were just too tight, though I did manage to insert one very thin piece of cardboard to augment the rubber.

I also decided to put small pieces of rubber between the bridge and the bridge adjustment discs. This covered all the spots that I thought might be relevant to mitigate while the strings were removed. If I needed to move on to work on knobs and controls I would be able to do that later even after re-stringing the guitar. As it happened, this was not necessary, because INSTALLING THE RUBBER ON PICKUPS AND BRIDGE FULLY SOLVED THE PROBLEM.

My relief was profound, and with the buzzing gone, the 594 is a WONDERFUL guitar, with really beautiful tone and projection (IMO) when played unplugged (which is the start of everything!) . Of course, it sounds gorgeous now plugged-in as well.

Here are the pictures to help clarify my procedure:



This is the rubber I used:

McMaster-Carr
Multipurpose Neoprene Rubber Sheet with Certificate, 12" x 24", 1/32" Thick, 40A Durometer

You might want thinner or thicker, or even to have several thicknesses available before you start your job.

I hope this story helps someone else turn a source of desperate despair into a source of profound satisfaction.

Peace and Music,

- Steve

[sgosnell]

Another possibility, which would be cheaper, is to use a rubber band of appropriate size around the pickup. In most cases there is enough room at the ends for it, usually about the same as on the sides. Finding the right size rubber band may take some searching, but there are what seems an infinite number of sizes, widths, and thicknesses. This probably requires removing the pickup from the ring, which can present its own problems with reinstallation, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

[Cunamara]

How about replacing the pickup springs with rubber tubing? I have found that to work in all cases of pickup buzzing on my guitars, but for this my n=2 solidbodies. My archtops both have neck-mounted floating pickups, which don't have much opportunity to buzz. I have seen Gibson style selector switches buzz, also; I don't know how to fix that one.

[sgosnell]

The rubber grommet installed on some models takes care of the switch buzz. But if one is not already installed, it's a pain to install one. The hole has to be enlarged, usually using a reamer. Rubber tubing does often help, but it affects the tone IMO, which might be good or bad. Stew-Mac sells tubing, but you can get it cheaper elsewhere, as is the case with anything they sell. Stew-Mac has quality products, but they're proud of them.

[cfibanez]

After paying several grand to a psychiatrist, I finally found this post and my problem got solved. It was the damned pick-up! The sound seemed to be coming from the inside, I never suspected it'd be the pick-up. I was going crazy. But now I am at peace. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[kris]

Yesterday I taped around my humbucker with a thin black electrical tape.
All the buzzing disappeared.
A brilliant method.

[sj1]

Yesterday I taped around my humbucker with a thin black electrical tape.
All the buzzing disappeared.
A brilliant method.

Any possibility to post a picture(s) of how you did that?

[sgosnell]

You just remove the pickup, tape it, and put it back. Remove the entire ring, lift it all out, unscrew the adjusting screws all the way, and the pickup comes out. Tape and reverse. Be aware that it can be excruciatingly difficult to get the pickup back into the ring, because some springs are so long and strong. An easier fix is to just stick a pick down between the pickup and the ring. Some people also use sax or clarinet reeds, and break them off at the level of the ring. Some also put foam between the pickup and the ring. That's possible without removing the pickup from the ring. There multiple threads on the forum discussing various methods of stopping vibrations.

[kris]

You just remove the pickup, tape it, and put it back. Remove the entire ring, lift it all out, unscrew the adjusting screws all the way, and the pickup comes out. Tape and reverse. Be aware that it can be excruciatingly difficult to get the pickup back into the ring, because some springs are so long and strong. An easier fix is to just stick a pick down between the pickup and the ring. Some people also use sax or clarinet reeds, and break them off at the level of the ring. Some also put foam between the pickup and the ring. That's possible without removing the pickup from the ring. There multiple threads on the forum discussing various methods of stopping vibrations.

Exactly.

[guavajelly]

My Ibanez GB200 came with the pickups buzzing in their rings. Fixed it with some surgical tubes over the screws and springs holding the pickups in the rings. Easy.
The first Ibanez GB10 I got had some vibrations from the truss rod. The shop took it back and got me another.
My Gibson ES 330 has some sympathetic vibrations in the switch when it's in the middle position. A luthier tried a lot and got rid of some of it but not all – so if I practice acoustically I just avoid to put the switch into the middle position. Playing with the band it doesn't matter.