A Guitar And Gear Support Forum

I don't know how many people have this issue, so I'll just put it out here. Many guitar strings sympathetically vibrate above the nut, and my ear catches the sound and doesn't like it. So most of my guitars get rubbery toys dampening the high strings above the nut. I ended up referring to these as the spirit animals of the guitars, and these days I have to get to know a guitar well before I decide what its spirit animal might be.

Today I was noodling on this Italia Maranello Classic I bought for $250 used! I wouldn't sell it for thousands because it rocks so well. Anyway, the tail must have been wagging. My index finger accidentally pinched the end of the tail just as I started jumping up to the 7th fret, and it stretched all that way without breaking. I saw the lizard hanging onto the headstock for dear life just as I made a different shape and the tail snapped back into place. I couldn't stop laughing at the sight of that.

Anyone else bothered by some of those sympathetic vibrations as they're playing?

BatUtilityBelt wrote: ↑Sat Dec 18, 2021 4:52 pm I don't know how many people have this issue, so I'll just put it out here. Many guitar strings sympathetically vibrate above the nut, and my ear catches the sound and doesn't like it. So most of my guitars get rubbery toys dampening the high strings above the nut. I ended up referring to these as the spirit animals of the guitars, and these days I have to get to know a guitar well before I decide what its spirit animal might be.

Today I was noodling on this Italia Maranello Classic I bought for $250 used! I wouldn't sell it for thousands because it rocks so well. Anyway, the tail must have been wagging. My index finger accidentally pinched the end of the tail just as I started jumping up to the 7th fret, and it stretched all that way without breaking. I saw the lizard hanging onto the headstock for dear life just as I made a different shape and the tail snapped back into place. I couldn't stop laughing at the sight of that.

Anyone else bothered by some of those sympathetic vibrations as they're playing?
Liz.jpg

Well, I don´t think I get that string vibration above the nut while I´m playing, but I can imagine that funny scene you describe!

I can't say that sympathetic vibrations behind the nut have ever been an issue for me either. I've been more troubled by the buzzing of cheap TOM bridges, or sympathetic vibrations after the bridge on a Jazzmaster set-up. If I had strings ringing behind the nut, I'd be looking to either replace the nut, or change the break angle of the strings. That Italia headstock looks pretty flat, without much of a break angle. Maybe you might want to install a retainer bar that holds all of the strings down, like on my 12-string Thinline Tele:

My 1965 Hagstrom Viking I has a retainer bar like that, but it also has a zero fret and the nut just keeps the strings on the neck left-right & the string spacing correct.

Mossman wrote: ↑Mon Dec 20, 2021 6:04 pm I can't say that sympathetic vibrations behind the nut have ever been an issue for me either. I've been more troubled by the buzzing of cheap TOM bridges, or sympathetic vibrations after the bridge on a Jazzmaster set-up.

Yup, I often hear the strings on the bridge end too, but when they're as "suspended" as on a Jazzmaster, it becomes part of the guitar's character and dampening there changes the guitar's amped sound noticeably, so I leave those alone.

I like to think that the sympathetic vibrations change the character of the sound, and that's part of why a Strat, even a hardtail one, sounds different from a Les Paul. That's part of why I want a 3x3 headstock on my hybrid project. But I will cheerfully admit this is probably just magical thinking!

BatUtilityBelt wrote: ↑Mon Dec 20, 2021 8:39 pm

Mossman wrote: ↑Mon Dec 20, 2021 6:04 pm I can't say that sympathetic vibrations behind the nut have ever been an issue for me either. I've been more troubled by the buzzing of cheap TOM bridges, or sympathetic vibrations after the bridge on a Jazzmaster set-up.

Yup, I often hear the strings on the bridge end too, but when they're as "suspended" as on a Jazzmaster, it becomes part of the guitar's character and dampening there changes the guitar's amped sound noticeably, so I leave those alone.

Yeah, I can't really say I was actually "troubled" by it (not like a buzzy TOM). But since switching from the traditional threaded saddle JM bridge to a Mustang bridge, and putting 11s on it, I don't get much in the way of sympathetic vibrations anymore. I can't say which of those changes did it, because I wasn't trying to get rid of it. I made those changes for other reasons. I gotta say, though, when I finished building the Eclipse and got it all set up, I thought it sounded like an electric RAKE the first I played it!

But that was because I was just beginning my apprenticeship with a Jazzmaster-style guitar. As you know, they're not at all like a Tele or a Strat, and I required more tutelage in order to set everything up properly. Not to mention the fact that they require a somewhat different EQ curve. Since I play Teles most of the time, I have a habit of dialing in my amp settings and just leaving it like that for everything. But once I worked out all the little idiosyncrasies, the guitar started to sing.