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I bought an electro-acoustic guitar last week and i've been playing quite a bit.

Today I noticed there was a slight buzz on the

5th String 3rd fret (C)

and the

6th String 8th fret (C)

Its the same note thats causing it and sounds like its coming from inside the guitar rather than the frets. Is this easily fixable?

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  • Maybe this can help you: music.stackexchange.com/questions/6813/fixing-fret-buzz
    – Shevliaskovic
    Commented Jan 20, 2014 at 22:29
  • @Shevliaskovic Surely if it was fret buzz it would effect multiple strings and not just C2
    – Edd
    Commented Jan 20, 2014 at 22:33
  • I have a similar issue with my acoustic on the D string 14th fret, it's always buzzed, it briefly got better, then got worse again. Think it's just down to how it was built, it was fairly cheap - £180
    – Pixelomo
    Commented Feb 12, 2016 at 17:25

3 Answers 3

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The most likely cause is that something is resonating when ever the C note is played. If it sounds like it's coming from inside you can use a chopstick to (gently) touch internal parts to isolate the noise. It may be easier to tune the A or D string to C so you don't have to fret a C note while doing this, this step will also rule out fret buzz as the source. A small make up mirror taped to a chopstick can help you see inside the body.

Possible sources are: A loose brace, a loose wire (if you have a pickup & preamp system), things like that.

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  • 4
    Thanks for the help! I managed to identify what was buzzing, turns out it was the battery pack at the bottom of the guitar. I removed the battery and the buzzing stopped. I just need to find a way to damp the vibrations so i can put the battery back in...
    – Edd
    Commented Jan 20, 2014 at 23:05
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    Great, that's a common problem, often guitars are shipped with a bit of foam in the battery slot to stop that happening.
    – Fergus
    Commented Jan 20, 2014 at 23:19
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    Some insulting tape around the battery will hold it enough so that it doesn't move.
    – Tim
    Commented Jan 21, 2014 at 9:48
  • Insulting tape has many uses... Sometimes it even isolates you:-)
    – ohno
    Commented Nov 7, 2016 at 15:25
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Well, for locating resonating parts in instruments, a cheap vibrator with soft/rubbery surface can be quite useful. The surface consistency is for feeding the vibrations into the instrument's body rather than having the thing rattle/snare at contact point. In a pinch, you can likely use a rubber chicken as intermediary. Just make sure that nobody else gets to see the contents of your instrument repair chest.

Actual bona fide back massagers tend to be too much on the strong side to play well with instruments.

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The G string started buzzing annoyingly mostly when fingerpicking on my Takamine electro acoustic. Then it spread to the D string which was even more annoying. Removed both strings and checked all the fixings before reattaching only to find the problem was still there. Strangely enough the buzzing only occurred when the guitar was in the playing position. Placed on its back, there was no obvious buzzing from either string. Started me thinking it was a loose interior fitting so I started with the preamp which appeared pretty secure. However when I removed the battery and played the two strings, I noticed that the buzzing had mysteriously gone away. Tried out the preamp with another battery and still no buzzing strings, so I can only conclude that the issue was with the original battery which was not seated properly in the battery compartment. A lesson learned, though…

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