Pinched sounding G string

[JONFROMJERSEY]

Marrguar

Any reason my g string sounds pinched or muted or plucked? Everything else working just fine.

I don't see anything that is obviously off. The string clears the edge of the bridge. Tunes up ok.

Thanks.

[alexpigment]

Is this only when you play it open or does it happen when fretted as well? If only open, you may want to see if there’s any debris in the nut slot (or just run a toothpick through it a few times).

[JONFROMJERSEY]

both. thanks for the tip!

[alexpigment]

Loosen (or remove) the strings enough to take the bridge off, then turn the bridge around 180 degrees and put it back in. Does the problem then happen on the D instead of the G? Or does it go away entirely? If the problem stays on the G string, then the problem is either the string itself or is elsewhere (not the bridge).

[B.T.]

I’m with Alex, could be the bridge saddle needs tending to.

[JONFROMJERSEY]

The bridge looks ok. It's the Mustang style bridge by the way. I squirted the nut with a little cleaner and it seems like it's better now. I'll probably just go ahead and change the strings anyway. thanks for the responses guys.

[alexpigment]

To be clear, I think we ruled out the nut because you said it happens when fretted. The "flipping the bridge 180 degrees" was a *test* to see if there was something about the G saddle that caused the problem; it wasn't meant as a janky solution. If the problem either a) went from the G string to the D string, or b) went away, then you would investigate the G saddle more, or something about the bridge itself. Otherwise, you start looking elsewhere on the guitar, as you've ruled out two places for the source of the problem. At any rate, hopefully changing the strings fixes the problem (i.e. it's a bad G string), but you may have to start getting a bit creative in ruling out different factors.

[Larry Mal]

I wonder if there isn't a microscopic burr on the saddle slot. What you could do is take an old D string, cut it to a handy length, and run it up and down the G string slot and it'll file it down a little bit.

[JONFROMJERSEY]

thanks again, I'll try all those things. I will change the strings but they're not that old. maybe 6 weeks or so and I play about a half an hour a day. I do use Fast Fret. are there any negative side effects of that?

[alexpigment]

If you google any guitar maintenance or cleaning product, you’re going to get people saying it’s great and others saying it’ll ruin your guitar. Fast Fret is no exception to this rule. It’s been around for many years and it’s probably fine.

It’s with pointing out though that G strings are usually unwound, and so the point of failure of the string *between the nut and bridge* is quite low. The odds are much more likely that the saddle or a high fret is the source of the problem.

Lastly, if the tuners are stock on the guitar, you have the very best scenario to troubleshoot and diagnose since you can remove the strings and put them back on the tuning pegs without having to replace them each time. I only mention this because I’ve seen some people blow through multiple sets of strings when working on their guitar, and it is entirely unnecessary with fender vintage style tuners. Apologies if I’m being captain obvious here - I just don’t want to make any assumptions.

[JONFROMJERSEY]

Well I changed the strings, cleaned the nut and bridge, and even gave the fretboard a good cleaning, including polishing the frets. It's better now, but there's still s bit of dull buzzing on the g. Maybe it's just a case of too low action? Winter warping? I'd rather live with it than drive myself crazy. I'm satisfied with a double in this situation. You can't always hit a homer. I do appreciate all the pro tips you guys gave me.

[GilmourD]

Marrguar

Any reason my g string sounds pinched or muted or plucked? Everything else working just fine.

I don't see anything that is obviously off. The string clears the edge of the bridge. Tunes up ok.

Thanks.

Clenching your cheeks?

I kid, I kid...

Did you flip the bridge (temporarily) as alexpigment suggested? Also, as he said, it's a test to see if the problem follows the saddle or stays with the G string, and not a permanent solution (although you could always flip that one saddle over since it's the same top and bottom).

Also, what strings do you use? I always seem to land back with D'Addario myself and I've been using NYXL 11-49 sets on my offsets (JM, Jag, and 'Stang) since the ball ends are reinforced and don't get killed by the offset trem. For a while (almost 20 years ago) I was using DR on my Strats and Teles and they were good for a while but then I had some inconsistent oddities (like one set of 10s feeling great and then the next one being super stiff feeling). I also would ocassionally (albeit rarely) get a dead string when I was using Ernie Balls.

I guess that's a long way of me wondering out loud if you might have a batch of strings with poorly extruded G strings.

Oh, BTW:

Jersey? Are we talking


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