Action and fret buzz: how do you deal with 'em?

[S. Cane]

So, fellows:

after getting my strat well set with the helo of my former bass player, who is an accomplished tech, I am finally playing it quite comfortably.

One thing that always caught my attention on electric guitars, though, is fret buzz. Coming from classical guitar, I used to be quite annoyed by ANY fret buzz at all. As I began to play the electric, I noticed that most of the electric guitars I've player and seen have some degree of fret buzz, even if the action ain't particularly low.

Many players keeo their actions so low that some buzzing even gets to the amp, others don't have any buzzing at all in their amps, but if you are close enough to the player, you can hear the string buzzing.

How do you deal with it?

My friend and I set my strat to a balance between the least buzzing and lowest possible action. It plays very nice now, but not without some slight buzz. In the end I think it is a matter of taste.

How do you guys deal with that?

[Old Ranger]

I use a rolled up newspaper. When I hear a buzz I swat the bug that's making the noise and get back to making sonic bombasts!!

[Gravity Jim]

If you can't hear it in the amp, it doesn't exist. A friend has a Tele Jr. that buzzes like a hive unplugged but makes a great, snappy, toothy sound plugged in.

However, my compound-radius, dual-action truss rod, ultra-fret leveled Strat-style guitar has almost no relief (.004"), super low action (3/64" at the 15th fret) and doesn't buzz anywhere on the neck even unplugged. Part of it is patiently dialing in the set-up over time as the wood settles, part of it is the way I play (very light touch in both hands).

Back in the day, I had guys set up the same guitar who played so stupid hard that they felt it was necessary to set the action at 1/8 and disengage the truss rod to get enough relief. Which is what led to me learning how to do it to suit myself.

[Offshore Angler]

If you can't hear it in the amp, it doesn't exist. A friend has a Tele Jr. that buzzes like a hive unplugged but makes a great, snappy, toothy sound plugged in.

However, my compound-radius, dual-action truss rod, ultra-fret leveled Strat-style guitar has almost no relief (.004"), super low action (3/64" at the 15th fret) and doesn't buzz anywhere on the neck even unplugged. Part of it is patiently dialing in the set-up over time as the wood settles, part of it is the way I play (very light touch in both hands).

Back in the day, I had guys set up the same guitar who played so stupid hard that they felt us was necessary to set the action at 1/8 and disengage the truss rod to get enough relief. Which is what led to me learning how to do it to suit myself.

I second the above. But I'll add, for me and many others, maybe most, a Strat tends to work better with the action a little on the higher side.