Scott's Guitar Blog: July 27, 2006

What’s that rattle?

Sorry, I’ve been away folks, but it’s SO busy and I wear all the hats here! This post I figured I’d talk about something that has come up several times already this year. A bunch of clients came here with guitars that had an odd buzz/rattle that they couldn’t trace down. Even odder, each customer would only hear the buzz with certain notes or frequencies. It wasn’t frets, loose braces or anything else. Each time it turned out to be a loose pickup pre-amp barrel on the inside of the guitar!

Many companies including Fish-man and LR Bags use a barrel style endpin pre-amp with a threaded cover. The cover can come loose in varying degrees over time and cause anything from a faint buzz to an all out swarm of rattle. It’s a quick easy fix. Something to remember if it happens to you!

All the best, Scott