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Hi guys ...Looking for some advice here....a guy came to my workshop with a New J-45 Gibson Guitar...The string action was high and hard on the fingers to play.....I brought the saddle height down so the height at the 12th fret now is .090" on the low E string...The height at the first fret is now .018" from the top of the fret to the bottom of the low E string .The relief was .010 and I made no changes ...The guitar played really nice and the guy took it home but came back today saying that there were buzzes on the low E....

I checked everything that I could think of to correct the problem..
Made sure the Saddle was dead level on the bottom
Checked the angle of the slots on the nut ,making sure they were on the same angle as the headstock
Changed the string
Made sure the string balls were tight against the bridge plate
Put a capo on the first fret...Still buzzing
I raised the saddle height back to original height....Still buzzed

The pin for the low E string is very tight but the ball seems to be tight against the plate....

What have I done wrong? I feel bad about the buzzing but I believe the set up was good for a nicer playing guitar....

What humidity did you do the setup at and what humidity is the guitar in now? If the guitar dried out after you did the setup then it can buzz. Since you didn't address the frets, they may not be perfectly level and you may want to look at the fretboard extension to make sure it isn't rising up a bit (ski ramp effect). Generally I level the frets and put in more relief on the base side so I can leave relief on the treble side very low like about 0.003". Also I put some fall away into the extension so that there is more clearance over the frets as you move from the 12th fret up. Both of these techniques help reduce the likelihood of buzzing bass strings.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Thanks Steve....Humidity ,I don't think , is the problem here...The guitar was in a case and he had the humidity at 43%....I should not have touched the guitar because it was still under Warranty...The darn thing was so hard on the fingers to play and I suggested to him that I could set the strings lower to make a better playing guitar..He loved the result....The buzz is there and now i am starting to second guess my measurements....Frustrating for sure....

Your numbers are pretty close to what I shoot for - 18 thou at the first fret is OK, but will be out of the picture as soon as you fret a string. 0.010 is the upper limit for relief for me, I prefer a lot less. Frets must be perfect and guitar must be perfectly humidified or I don't even start a setup. 90 thou is reasonable at the 12th fret, I'll shoot for 60 or 65 on the high E. Where does it buzz, all frets, one fret, lower neck, upper neck, 14th fret?

I do a little trick when I'm done with a setup that I call "next fret clearance" - I simply hold down each string at the first fret, find a feeler gauge that just fits (usually a 2 or 3 or 4 thousands) and move up the fretboard, holding down each fret and measuring the next. Ideally the clearance stays the same (if it didn't buzz at 1 it shouldn't buzz anywhere else if you have that much clearance). If it gets a little bigger thats OK too (I really don't "measure" the next gap, I just make sure the feeler is free and not getting pinched down). If it gets tighter up high (10 or 11 or 12) then I probably have too much relief. Often you'll get a little pinch at 14, the it opens up again - you'll have to decide if that player needs for you to try to reduce the hump. And if you get a pinch at one fret, then OK above you've got a high fret. Anyway, its a quick test and tells me a lot about what the action is doing.

edit to add - don't assume that because its a new guitar that the frets are perfect. I've seen some real horror stories lately

Frank Ford has a nice little write up on his site about buzz diagnosis.
http://www.frets.com/FretsPages/Luthier ... intro.html

Thanks guys....The string buzzes as you go down the string but gets less noticeable ...I must admit that I didn't think about checking fret levelness, it being an High End Guitar.... I didn't want to do any more work on it since I may have already voided his warranty...I phoned the Technician at the place where he bought it...Told him what I done ....He wasn't very helpful....The guy who owns it is taking it back to the Store...I do feel bad for not being able to help him

That kind of buzzing can be caused by a flat spot on the saddle peak where that string sits. Tends to change as you move up the neck because the angle of the string over the flat spot changes.

I had a J-45 come in a while ago in a similar state, although this one wasn't brand new.

The customer had originally had it set up years ago with a "bluegrass" set up, the relief was .026", and the low e action was about .125". He's a pretty heavy handed strummer, but was frustrated that the guitar was always going out of tune when he'd capo it. He liked some work I did on another guitar of his (a 000 clone), so I adjusted the relief down to .008" and dropped the saddle to about .093" on the low E. It played a lot better, and was much more in tune up and down the neck with the capo, I didn't get any buzzes and didn't think much more about it. Anyway the guitar came back the next week it had lost all it's power and "mojo", and seemed to be on the verge of buzzing all over the place. I figured it had settled into its new environment and shifted from when it left my place, but I measured again and everything seemed the same as when it went out my door. I did notice what he was talking about with the lack of power. I brought the relief up to about .012" and made a new saddle that was about 1/64" higher (we were changing out the pickup this time anyway) I thought it remedied the perceived lack of power and the customer says it's all great now.

Perhaps its the shorter scale that makes getting a really low action a little finickier...

Saddle was nice and peaked , no flat spots

Yeah...This guy is a little heavier strummer than myself...I could play it not have much of a problem...He also uses a thicker pick then me and that adds to everything...but the guitar has to be set-up for his style of playing not mine...Maybe everything will have to be put back the way it was...