I had my guitar set up about a week before I left for Austin, and it felt perfectly fine. About three days after I arrived in Austin I noticed the strings were starting to buzz, and it kept getting worse and worse. Once I got back to Houston they stayed like that for about a week and now it's still buzzing, but not nearly as bad as it was. Do changes in humidity really effect guitars that much?

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I cant imagine humidity causing it unless the guitar is absolutely dripping wet and the electrics are shorting across a puddle in the body.

Its far more likely that whoever set it up pulled a wire too hard or knocked a pot, maybe even pulled on the earth wire to the tremclaw a bit whilst adjusting that.

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No no and no

I really dont know what im talking about....and this seems like a good place to find out.

But when I bought my two new Am. strats this year I took them right away to a guy that does my set ups. He told me this " you might start getting some buzzing after awhile, something is bound to give on new set ups ie. springs,neck...bring it back in and ill reset it up free of charge"

Im not sure if this is true but sounded right to me at the time. Or is it just because he set my action really low (I dont know anything about this stuff, but he had me play one for a few minutes and said i had a very light touch and the action could be set low if i wanted it...and i did)

Yep. After a setup the neck will settle a bit. Happens to me. Your setup guy sounds like he knows what he's doing. I go back after a few days and recheck/adjust. Traveling with the guitar via hot cars, airplanes and what not will affect it as well as humidity changes.

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-Kirk

GUITARS
'12 Sonoran Acoustic - black (dated 10/31/12)
'13 Standard Strat
AMP
Vox ac4c1-bl
PEDALS
Compressor
Big Muff
Vox Stomplab 1G
Carbon Copy Delay

Which guitar Tex the Squier? It shouldn't affect it that much regardless; unless you did not give it time to acclimate before you took it out of the case in Austin. Check your neck relief. Capo the first fret. depress your low E string at the last fret. If you have a feeler gauge the relief should be around .008 to .010 at the 8th fret. (relief= gap between the fret and the string.) You can also use a straight edge to check it. Try to figure out which strings are buzzing on which fret. If they're all buzzing at the same fret a simple truss rod adjustment should take care of it.

He's talking about buzzing. Not humming. There's a difference.

So enlighten me oh wise one.

Do you in your expert opinion think its possible that the humidity differences in a short stay visit are going to affect a guitar so badly? What did the stones and beatles do in the early 60's? How did they combat humidity problems. Were there humidity problems for world touring artists in those days? Never mind just traveling 160 miles across state on pretty much a parralell line to the equator. Your right there is a difference between buzzing and humming, but we the inventors of the language you speak deem them pretty much interchangable.


http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/hum?view=uk
http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/buzz?view=uk



Tell you what, just dont ever address me again you menial lifeform.

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No no and no

Hmmm! BTW he is a she!

No need to get nasty. I didn't mean to make you angry. Single coil pickups hum. It's common knowledge. Strings and frets buzz. They don't hum. They are not interchangeable terms.

And the poster is talking about his strings buzzing on the frets. He's not referring to his pickups humming.

Simmer down dude...

Much depends on how low the setup was. If it was low low but no buzz then a slight change could cause fret buzz to start. And as someone else said guitars do settle in after a few days which is why many shops tell the customer to bring it back by after a week if need be.

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

I really didn't think it was the humidity, it was just the only lame excuse I could think of.

It's my Fender, I've been using it a lot lately. I don't really like low action. Right after it was set up it was about medium, and I was going to start playing slide on it. It does seem a little low now, but maybe that's just because I'm used to high action on my Squier.

I'm going to take it to the shop sometime this week. Hopefully it's just a minor thing that can get fixed quick.

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I'm sure it just needs a little tweaking.

Hi texasguitarslinger: did you fly or drive? If you flew, did you put the guitar through the luggage hold or carry it on? That's a question about temperature changes, obviously.

Another possibility: might it have had a bump at some point? Enough to knock the neck a touch out of true? Do your neck bolts still seem nice and tight (but not too tight)?

Temperature and humidity certainly do affect guitars, sometimes a lot. It's often the speed of change that counts, as much as the actual difference.

Whatever: you're now discovering one of the prices of being a touring musician. You either have to learn guitar setup, or pay someone else to do it for you regularly. Back to your tech with you!

Don't worry: you'll be travelling with your own tech in no time - I have a feeling...

Cheers - C

I drove, and I always make sure never to leave my guitars in a hot (or cold) car. I take them in with me, even if it's just into a restaurant. In the bus to Antone's I had it on my lap with me. There was no way I was going to throw in the cargo area.


It's very possible it could have had a bump, either in the car or from me carrying it around everywhere. Oddly enough, I dropped a pick today while I was practicing and when I leaned over (leaning on the neck) to pick it up there was a strange popping sound. It sounded like it was coming from the neck pocket, but it could have been one of the springs. I was thinking that of course I'd break the neck of my guitar less than two weeks after Jimmie Vaughan signed it, but everything was fine. Bolts were fine, and the neck was still nice and snug in the pocket.

Since my Dad has been laid off for a little over a month now, I don't think that we can spare enough for another set up (my Mom would go crazy). So I'm going to ask my tech to look at it and tell me what needs to be done. Maybe I can see if he can do one of the strings while I watch. Then I'm going to try and do the rest. In the worst case situation, I can't mess up something that's already messed up and I'll just take it in for another set up after Dad gets a job and use my Squier until then.

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You might want to get a paper route or something in case your pops luck does'nt change soon. You never know. One day youll be on your own and providing for yourself. Its never to early to work.

Back to bussiness, have you checked the truss rod, for a possible break within the neck? That might explain the popping noise and would also explain the buzzing issue.
J