hey everyone i was just given a les paul style guitar with a tune-o-matic bridge. put some new strings on it sat down and started playing it and theres a ton of fret buzz in a bunch of different places along the neck. i play skinny top heavy bottom strings, and usually play in drop d. the action is low, and i know that doesnt help the fret buzz. which is the best way to go about fixing this without having to bring it in to the shop? ill get it set up eventually but im really pressed for time. should adjust the action a bit higher, or work on the truss rod a bit? its a pretty straight neck, slightly slightly bowed forward. maybe a bit of both? thanks!
For the most part, if it's buzzing on the lower frets only your neck might be too straight (so you will need to loosen your truss rod), if it's buzzing on open notes only you need to raise your nut, and if its buzzing everywhere (or just on the higher frets), raise the action. I'm thinking you need to raise the action a little.
You do want a bit of a bow in your neck too - if you hold down your low e on the first fret, and with your other hand hold down the same string on the 12th (or higher) fret, the string will form a makeshift straightedge, and you can see the bow. You want to be able to slip a bit of paper between the fret and the string around the 5-7th frets, but not much more, and certainly not much less. There's lots of setup instructional things online you can check out if that makes no sense. Tighten the rod for straighter (not too straight!), loosen for more relief.
If neither the truss rod or the action changes the buzz, you could have a couple of frets sticking up and giving you grief, which would be easily fixed by any pretty much any decent tech. (note the word decent hehe)
Of course it's hard to say without looking at it. But learning to set up your guitar is worth taking the time to do, and will save you spending cash too. There's a fair bit you can do with a screwdriver and allen key which form the bulk of set ups. Dressing/crowning frets is actually pretty easy too but requires some tools. Even cutting nuts (hehe) is fairly simple if not rather irritating and time consuming to do (bone dust STINKS).
Some might recommend taking it straight to the professional but unless you've got some serious repair needed I think it's a bit of a waste of cash for *basic* setups. Obviously don't jump straight into refretting bound necks or anything but you can do most stuff at home.
