Members dw kleine Posted December 24, 2003 Members Share Posted December 24, 2003 The B string on my Martin D-15 is fretting out (making a plinky annoying tone) when I hit notes from the 4th thru 7th frets. It's only the B string and only those notes. The sound is almost unnoticble to the human ear but it's loud and clear when I use a condenser mic to record, making the guitar unusable for recording. I took the guitar in to where I bought it and the repair guy pounded down on a few of the frets. It sounded OK after he did it (to the human ear) but when I got home and tried to record, the plinky fretted out notes were still there. The neck is dead on straight and no probles with other strings or buzzing issues. Could the saddle groove be worn a little too low for the B string to cause this? I'd really like to record some tracks with this guitar but when I play a chord that plinky note kinda jumps out at you. Thanks DW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dave251 Posted December 24, 2003 Members Share Posted December 24, 2003 Get the frets dressed by somebody other than the 500 lb gorilla that beat your frets in....holy moly....if the guitar was new, it's sure as hell out of warranty by now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LittleBrother Posted December 24, 2003 Members Share Posted December 24, 2003 The way you described it sounds more like some low frets. Pounding it might not help a bit. Get it to a decent tech. Look on the Martin website and click warranty and service and contact the closest certified Martin repair center and if it's in warranty have them look at it. NOT some dealer with Billy Bob and a Hammer in the back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members seven7 Posted December 24, 2003 Members Share Posted December 24, 2003 whoa...i agree with the above. take it to someone who is qualified and really knows what they are doing. you mentioned the nut slot. you can rule that out. if the nut slot is too low it would be buzzing against the first fret on open notes only. when you're playing a fretted note you are taking the nut out of the equation. your problem might disappear by tightening the truss rod a little bit, BUT that is just a bandaid and by doing that you're sacrificing by changing the setup so it's not as good on the other strings. beating on the frets with a hammer is NOT the right way to go for lowering frets i can assure you. the only time that is necessary is if frets become unseated. otherwise, to lower any frets, filing or sanding followed by crowning and polishing as needed is the recommended way to go. assuming any frets even needed to be lowered. like lb said, it's more likely you have some frets that are too low in this case. but it could be a combination of things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dw kleine Posted December 24, 2003 Author Members Share Posted December 24, 2003 Thanks guys. I found the Martin warranty repair guy here in town, so I'll be taking it over to him next week. DW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members woody b Posted December 24, 2003 Members Share Posted December 24, 2003 The Martin guy will no doubt fix it but I know one thing for you to look at. A friend of mine bought a D15 and it had a sound similar to what you describe on the high e string around the 3rd to 6th frets. It sounded fine open or fretted higher. He wanted me to look at it but it's not my field. I just looked at it to humor him. I couldn't see anything wrong with any of the frets or anything but like I said this is not my field. Just for kicks I took a mirror and looked inside. The E string wasn't seated against the bridgeplate. There was about an inch hanging down with the ball dangling. I fixed this and it fixed his problem. His problem was not a buzz or rattle but I would call it a plinky sound like you said. I don't understand how this caused the problem he had and maybe it was just a strange thing but you might look inside your if it's only done it with this set of strings. His still had the strings on it that were on it when he bought it. He bought it new but I don't think they were the original strings, the plain strings were silver and I think the Martin that come on it are plated so the music store had probably changed them. Like I said I don't know how this caused his problem, maybe Dave or someone can explain how or either say we just accidently fixed something else messing with the string. We didn't change the string just repositioned it against the bridge plate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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