Gibson ES-175 Vibration Solution!

**sgosnell** · 01-26-2018, 09:56 PM

Rocket surgery?

**Longways to Go** · 01-26-2018, 11:43 PM

Originally Posted by grahambop

On my 175 the buzz was caused by the underside of the pick guard just touching one of the pickup mountings. I stuck a tiny blob of blutak under it and it went away.

It took me about 15 years to figure this out!

yeah, I already tested that (as in, removed the pick guard).

I appreciate the idea, but it's not the core issue.

**citizenk74** · 01-27-2018, 02:30 AM

Originally Posted by sgosnell

Rocket surgery?

It's a branch of brain science. With wrenches.

**Jabberwocky** · 01-27-2018, 02:52 AM

Originally Posted by citizenk74

It's a branch of brain science. With wrenches.

Brain science with wenches! I'll take a dozen.

Oh, wRenches...There's good reason why they're called "spanners" in auld parts of the world. There is no possibility to get clobbered by your wife for saying "pass me the wench".

**Jabberwocky** · 01-27-2018, 03:00 AM

Longways, white teflon plumbing tape solves most squeaking problems. Wrap some around the screws, springs, etc..

**geoff23** · 01-27-2018, 05:42 AM

Coincidentally, I just fixed a similar-sounding bridge pick up rattle on my L4. For me, what did it was replacing the springs on the height-adjuster bolts with plastic (neoprene?) tubing. I got my tubing from some kind fellow on another forum, but I believe you can buy it from providers of home aquariums (aquaria?).

Really enjoying the guitar acoustically now. Have barely plugged it in since the fix :-).

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

**Longways to Go** · 01-29-2018, 12:56 PM

I did the plastic tubing fix on Saturday on my 175. Changed out the strings to Elixir 12s. Worked great - the grumbles are gone.

**sgosnell** · 01-29-2018, 01:15 PM

If you get the right size tubing, you can get the springs inside it, and you get the strength of the spring plus the rattle absorption of the tubing at the same time. Most springs will fit inside the standard tubing if you use some sort of lube - water works well enough, spit maybe a little better. It doesn't take much, and you can probably force the spring in dry with more effort.

**M-ster** · 02-04-2019, 09:30 AM

Reviving this thread just to note that I finally tried replacing some pickup springs with "surgical tubing" -- and it's brilliant!

I learned about it from this thread (although there are others, if you search for "surgical tubing") and you good folks. Thank you! I'm really happy with the results and plan to do it to more of my guitars, as I get around to changing strings, etc.

This is an excellent solution to a maddening issue!