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For me the tight string being held by the pin but the ball end was not tight on the plate. this one took a while to find

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Some wood chips rattling around after installing a pickup. I would have bet money I got them all out, but there were a couple bigger chips bouncing around down there and on just the right notes sounded like crinkling paper. I messed around with the saddle and nut for a long time before finally figuring it out.

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Washers rattling in a parts drawer under the work table on an F# and an A on whatever guitar was on the table.

Well John,
Now I have to check the seating of the ball ends of my cello strings! It will save me from making a new tailpiece. Thanks.

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Why be normal?

An undersized 9v battery in a Taylor rattling in the box. (after tearing my hair out looking for the buzz) I didn't realize some cheap 9v batteries are a little smaller than standard.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

It didn't cause a buzz but the grossest thing I ever found in a guitar was a big toe nail that had been cut off and had green fuzzy stuff growing on it......

Now toenails and fingernails are not uncommon to find in guitars along with string ball ends that break and stay in the box. You know when you cut your nails and one flies away and you can't find it? Well they fly into your guitars.

Anyway this big, green, fuzzy toe nail was under a saddle.... which strongly suggests that someone intentionally put it there as a shim of sorts. A "tone toenail" if you will.

We've had those too and I had no idea that the batteries were not all at least the same size.

So it's also a well known thing to take a dried rattler from a rattle snake and put it in your guitar. They can rattle as well.

Here's one that may be useful for repair operations that are not wired into the Martin organization, but see enough of the Vintage, Marquis, and Authentics to wind up with some head-scratchers re: buzzes.

For what seems like close to 7-8 years, Martin installed their open-back Gotoh tuners on the V and Authentic models with tiny little trim washers under the tuner bushings. After spending too many hours chasing 'body' buzzes on those guitars, we determined that - with the unseating of the tuner bushing over time - those washers were great little buzz generators. Since about 2013, it became standard practice in the shop to preemptively remove those trim washers and re-seat the bushings with a dot-sized dab of medium CA. Martin apparently figured that out as well, because when they upgraded to Waverly open backs for most of the vintage-style guitars, those trim washers disappeared along with those annoying buzzes.

We once found a strip of tin can metal that somebody had put into the guitar at the factory. It was about 1/2" wide and 5" long or so. One end was stuck underneath a top brace when it was glued on, and when the glue dried they bent it around in a circle so that the free end almost touched the top. When you hit the wrong note it buzzed. Once we found it, and figured out how to reach it, it was easy to bend it around until it broke off.

Not silly but kind of annoying. I figured out a cable from a pick-up (bridge plate mounted) was rattling against the soundboard. Twist your cables, folks.

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-Marcus
http://www.bailieguitars.com
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Too many windings on the A string post lightly touching the D string. Sympathetic vibrations on the D string between the post and the nut causing faint sitar like buzz.

I remember those and have not seen them for a couple of years now but back in the day we removed them preemptively too. They not only had no value at all they were very rattle prone.

just had another one
Weird buzz one I never heard before dang martin bolt on neck was tight the bolt wasn't
easy fix put a spring lock washer on it

_________________
John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it