FRETBUZZ when lifting fingers off strings

Welcome Bill!!!

You might have gone in the wrong direction with the truss rod and saddle adjustment. To get it back to normal you might have to undo your tweaks. Has the guitar been exposed to any temp/humidity changes? Listen to Pix, he knows what he's talking about. You need to try and isolate the buzz first.

Good luck!!

The most affected string seems to be the b string but the e and g strings are quite bad. The buzzing seems to affect the open g more than any other chord. The buzzing occurs on all notes along the neck. I live in Brisbane (Australia) and we have been experiencing unusually cold and dry conditions so I would say, yes the guitar has definitely been exposed to temp and humidity changes in the last couple of months. Could this make a difference as it is normally very humid in the summer months. All the frets are quite secure. I could try loosening the truss rod but then the frets will become higher and more difficult for me to play. I don't think this will make a difference as the frets were buzzing before I had tightened the truss rod. Maybe I should wait until the summer to see if it is any better! As far as isolating the buzz is concerned, the buzzing occurs pretty much anywhere on the neck, unless a absolutely spot on with my playing and I lift my fingers off the fret very quickly.

Thanks for all your help, I really appreciate it.

Bill.

When I played nights in bars, my strings wore the nut grooves down too low and string buzz became a problem. For a temporary fix I folded a bar napkin four times and tore off a small piece to insert between the string and the nut groove. This raised the strings enough to stop the buzz until I replaced the nut.
toots

my buzzing seems to be when I'm fretting... I feel like I have to fret the strings harder now than I did before (or be more careful to have my fingers placed right AT the frets... but then, maybe a string change could help this issue too, I think I'll try that today).  I've wondered if maybe the saddle is just too high but the strings don't LOOK like they're far away from the fretboard and I did measure everything when I replaced the saddle.

Toots... your suggestion makes sense.  I'll keep that in mind for when I'm playing w/o capo

Steelstrings... of course I can't answer, but I can comment on what I've heard which is... when using a capo a LOT (like I do) you'll wear the nut down faster.  This is primarily why I didn't bother changing the nut when I did the saddle and pins.

A lifted fret may be the culprit causing the unfretted buzz which is usually caused by climate changes that cause the neck woods to expand just enough for a fret to move. As for buzz while fretting it could be due to a neck adjustment. MkM if you've had your guitar for over a year it may be time to tweak the trussrod to straighten the neck back up. Another thing could be fret wear which can be releveled easily by a exprienced guitar tech.

I'll throw something else out here. Sometimes when I'm playing a faster tempo song I sometimes fudge my chord changes so the last up strum sorta has a buzz to it. Seems to happen mostly when I scratch,mute,chop, whatever you want to call it. Anyway, my point is that maybe it could be a playing thing a not a guitar thing.

The neck has a very small relief which seems ok. All the frets seem nice and level with no obvious problems there. I might not be explaining my situation very well. The buzzing doesn't occur on any open string but occurs on the fret that I am playing only, as I lift my finger off I get a buzz only on that particular fret as I release the pressure on the string. I quite agree with zguitar that it might be a playing thing, I can accept that. It's just that when I first played the guitar it had none of these problems and was very forgiving. Now I have to be absolutely precise in my playing and play a chord/note right on the fret to minimise the buzzing. It makes it quite nerve-racking to play rather than nice and relaxing as it used to be. The strange thing is, I used to play a yamaha and that was fine at first but then developed the same problem as this one. I sold that and bought my LAG which I loved. It was as different as chalk and cheese to playing my Yamaha. Maybe the answer lies there somewhere. Thanks again.

Bill.

Good suggestion Roger!  Since I'm having a similar problem, I thought I'd chime in here that I checked my string height and had sighted down the neck as Pix suggested.  Sure enough, the neck had some amazing curve to it.  I adjusted my truss rod (ever so gently a little at a time) and then pulled the saddle out again and filed that down a bit more.  Then, I changed to lighter strings.  My buzzing seems to have subsided SOME.  I think what's left is ABSOLUTELY technique and I'm going to play around with my husband's guitar to day to see if I'm getting the same sounds.  I think I'm quite lazy when I'm playing.  I do think it is entirely possible that my saddle is/was slightly uneven too. 

Bill, I feel your pain.  I'm heading to the Martin Guitar factory for a visit tomorrow and quite tempted to fall in love with one and give away this one.  LOL!

Put your finger right up next to the fret when playing and release straight up.  See if that helps.  If it doesn't, then I suggest crying uncontrollably while looking at guitar shop web sites until your significant other (if you have one) recognizes the need for you to purchase a different guitar. 

You may also want to try a humidifier in your guitar. 

My guess is that it is the nut.  I say that because I have no skill whatsoever at this sort of thing and it's a wild guess on my part.  But thinking about how a guitar works, it kind of makes sense. 

- Zurf

Hi again. Yes Zurf, it does make it better when I put my finger right next to the fret, it doesn't eliminate it entirely though. I am tending to mute certain chords with the palm of my right hand just before I lift my fingers off, this obviously will stop the buzzing, it works but it's not always desirable. I don't own a capo so have never tried playing the guitar with one on. It could be worth giving that a try. The frets are all very smooth, the guitar isn't that old and I tend to really look after it so there are no obvious signs of wear on the frets. With all the good advice that has been given to me, the thing that is starting to make the most sense is the humidity factor. As I mentioned before, we are experiencing very cool and dry conditions in Brisbane at the moment. Brisbane is famous for it's high humidity (similar to Florida) in the summer months. This problem does seem to have occurred at the onset of our winter. I have recently restrung the guitar thinking that this might help. The strings are Elixir polyweb custom light (.011-.052). Are any guitar strings more susceptible to buzzing than others? Sorry Guitar Pix. I hope I'm not causing you any sleepless nights! I do appreciate yours and everyone else's help and advice.

Thanks to all, Bill.

well, after this past weekend I can say... my strings are still too high.  Pix actually handled my guitar but only for a minute and straight away said that the action was quite high... so I'm off to the sanding block some more.  Interestingly enough, I didn't notice a lot of buzz over the weekend after the little bit of lowering I had already done. 

So Bill, I think you and I are simply in need of some more tweeking to our guitars.  No doubt a professional set up would help, but that takes all the fun out of it!  LOL!  BEST WISHES!