Notes not registering? harmonics won't play? Buzz? 1 fret just won't work? I have fix

[Just]

Ok. So I was playing rocksmith and notes sometimes would not register. I swapped strings and it actually made it worse.

So what happend?

1. If you play your guitar 80 hours -- Or 3 months has passed -- Put on new strings.

2. After you put on new strings tune up, now INTONE the guitar. You have to adjust the saddles on the bridge. A google video will tell you how. No amount of perfect playing will hit the notes if your guitar is not intoned, (intoned is not intune both are important)

3. Harmonics are how you can tell if your guitar is INTONED. if you KNOW how to play them and the game won't register them, it is a good indication it needs intoned. Lots of google videos on this.

4. If you don't know how to play harmonics, you can check intonation by using a tuner. the 12th fret should produce the same note as the open string. Google a video on how to do it, and how to adjust the saddles on your particular guitar. After each adjustment.... RETUNE the guitar. Then check the 12th fret. It will need to be re-tuned after every adjustment.

5. Buzzzzzz.... If you guitar is buzzing it is NOT intoned properly even if it is.... even cheap guitars should not buzz. Even if it is "intoned" according to a tuner, if it is buzzing 50% of the time it might be 50% of time it won't be. You won't be playing many harmonics on a string that has any buzz consistenty, and notes will consistently not register on buzzing frets. see lower in post.

6. If you can't get it intoned by adjusting the bridge. STOP. If you are a newer play DO NOT touch the neck bolt. As some google searchs will lead you to do. They make neck adjustments seem like no problem. The truth is the best way to ruin a guitar permanetly is to touch the bolt if you are not SURE you know what you are doing. If you have a cheap guitar the cost of fixing it will be more than the guitar.

---- So what should you do? --- Take it to a GUITAR store. Tell them to "set it up", and ask to watch so you can learn how. it will cost $15 - $50 at most, most places. Anymore and they likely ripping you off. You will be buying new strings when you get it "setup" make sure you get 5 - 10 sets of the exact same strings. google the "recomended" gauge of string before you go into the store. Yes you can use .11's on a strat ... you could use .9's on a blues guitar... don't. If you are new the recomended gauge will require far less tinkering over the life of your guitar. If your a newb less is better.

After setting up your guitar, do not leave the store until the person who set it up plays Harmonics on every string, you may not know how to play them. But that won't matter he does and you have ears, if he tries to play them and they don't play it is NOT intoned. There is no such thing as a harmonics playing on a non-intoned guitar. It will be dead if he tries.


Ok so after you do this. Notes will register and you will realize you are not crazy.

FRET BUZZ is not normal. Once again, even a cheap guitar, even a Squire Mini $99 guitar, or a Daisy rock $89 hello kitty guitar should not have fret buzz. ( though if you are playing a daisy rock guitar have at the neck, no one will cry if it get ruined :-p ) A lot of players who have cheap guitars assume fret buzz is ok. It is not. Your cheap guitar should not buzz.


Fret buzz on an intoned guitar is due to low action. Really low action. usually on the Low E string. ( most common non-intoned string ) --- You do not want LOW action as a new player. You want NORMAL action. Low action makes bends easier... but it also makes a new player BEND the string slightly just by touching it. go ahead check yourself. do you bend it?

Generally it is best to have a normal or high action on the EAD and normal or low action on the GBE. If your a new player and your fingers hurt, so you want lower action... booo hooo. Suck it up butter cup, your not ready for low action if your fingers are still hurting. You will learn to play wrong.

Ok so you did all that? You have a cheap guitar and it still buzzes and it still won't hit notes. Have a person play who is GOOD at guitar. If he also misses notes. After ALL the steps above to correct it. You need a new guitar. Do not bother trying to get new pickups, bridge, Saddles, ext ext ext. Your guitar is a cheap POS under $200. Go to a guitar store. Buy a new one ( they should set it up for you before you leave store free. If they don't, stop buying at Best Buy you cheap MOFO.

Top 3 cheap guitars

1. Squire mini if your a child under 5ft tall. with tiny hands -- Or squire affinity if your an adult. Do not get the bullet strat squire.
2. Epihphone Les paul Studio ( do not get a 100, special, or II ) Though low end epiphones are tempting, cost benifit is lowest on low end epiphone guitars. The junior is ok to get if your a child or tiny person.
3. Ibanez -- Any of their cheap guitars = good. Ibanez makes most cost effective low end guitars. Google it yourself. They may not be as famous as the other two, but you always get what you pay for.
4. If you are new to bass, or a small person. The best Shortscale bass I recomend is the Ibanez Mikro -- I bought it for my nephew compared to others in the price range it is light years better, lighter, and easier to play. If your a guitar player and want a bass to play bass songs, this bass is only 1-3 inches longer then your normal guitar (depending if your a strat or les paul style person) . Makes transition very easy. 3 pickups so notes register great.

If all else fails... Get any guitar with at least 2 pickups. 1 pickup is not always best for rocksmith. Sometimes 1 pickup is better at registering notes than another.



Ok so their was my rant. I hope it is helpful. 99% of problems with missed notes have to do with INTONATION. Not guitar being out of tune. Fret Buzz is NOT normal. Good luck.

[Just]

Just to add to this.

If you bought your guitar x amount of years ago. Just came back to playing because of rocksmith. GREAT.

Now change your strings. Change your strings change your strings. Think of strings like food, eat it don't eat it, eventually you need to buy more because it is gone or bad.

If you never played your guitar, left it in it's case, and it has the same strings it had 3 years ago. You need to change them and intone. But if you have a NICE guitar $700+ take it to a guitar store and get it SETUP and looked over. You wouldn't skip the dentist for 3 years, don't skip the Luthier for 3 years if you have a nice guitar.

[Strangepowers]

Stretch your new strings! It cuts down on the break in time, otherwise they will strech when you play and lose tune quicker.

Did you mention that? I'm sorry for my redundancy if you did.

[Just]

Originally posted by The Boogeyman:

Stretch your new strings! It cuts down on the break in time, otherwise they will strech when you play and lose tune quicker.

Did you mention that? I'm sorry for my redundancy if you did.

Forgot to mention that but good catch. If your really really new though.. and this first time you changed strings... DO NOT look directly down at the strings when stretching them. if you put them on wrong, this is when they will break.


Also No matter what new guitar you buy. Always. ALWAYS buy new strings the same time you buy the guitar. Make them put them on and INTONE to those strings. Now only play with those strings until you know enough that you feel confident you can adjust your neck tension.

As long as you ALWAYS use the same strings, it is far less likely you will have to get your neck adjusted in the next several years. If you even 1 time put on a different gauge you may have to. Different string gauges and put different tension on the guitar neck, and bridge. Two different brands of .10 gauge standard strings won't make much difference. But going from .9's to .11's will make a big difference.

Also CHANGE 1 STRING at a time. Do not change them all at once. at MOST change 2 at a time. String them up. Change 2 more. string up ext.

[Preacher403]

Most of this is good, but other parts...well, not so good. Buzzing has NOTHING to do with intonation. A guitar can be perfectly intonated and still buzz. Buzzing is caused by the string hitting a fret (or multiple frets), which can possibly throw off Rocksmith. Why would the string be hitting a fret? Because either a fret is higher than the others somewhere or possibly the guitars action (height of the strings above the fretboard) is too low.

A little buzzing you can't hear through the speakers can be acceptable, but if it kills your notes or can be heard through the speakers, you should get your guitar set up by someone who knows what they are doing.

And never touch the truss rod until you have some idea of what you are doing...intonation is NOT something you should be touching the truss rod for.

[Just]

Alright another Addition I can not believe i left this off for new players...

A new player often hears buzz because they do not FULLY fret the string. Press down all the way. Does it still buzz? If not try to start playing with more pressure if this is the only thing that makes it buzz. This may not be the answer. But in some cases, just playing wrong could be the cause.

[Just]

@ preecher. I thought I covered that. Admitedly in the middle somewhere I sorta got lost.

I thought I said it could be intoned and buzz. Admitedly I kind of got lost writing this.


1. Open string buzz -- But not fretted buzz. = Usually a bad nut. ( no really ) take it to a luthier.

2. Open string buzz -- AND fretted buzz on one or more frets = Most likely Truss rod adjustment needed.

3. All fret Buzz -- String action likely too low -- It could be once you intone the guitar it will fix itself. IF NOT -- And you have a Tune-0-matic style bridge you can fix fret buzz with those adjustments (usually) -- Adjust, then re-intone and it should be fixed... If not .... take to luthier for truss rod adjustment. After the luthier SHOWS you how to do the adjustments on your guitar, you can likely do them yourself in future. If you have a doubt take to a guitar tech. (some other adjustable bridges exist, I do not know them all)

4. String buzzes ONLY when strummed hard. -- Raise your action, using bridge, if that won't work take to a luthier for truss rod adjustment. Switching to a higher gauge string can sometimes fix this also.

5. Still buzzing even after action adjustment on all frets? -- You (likely) need to dress your frets, and by you I mean a highly trained guitar tech. NO one without real training should ever do this. Even your friend who played 15 years and helped with truss rod cause he is a pro. If your frets need adjusting EXPECT to leave the guitar overnight. Your typical employee at guitar center won't do this. A special tech will. Same with any guitar store, they stop at the Truss. anything more takes a REAL luthier.

[Indrek]

Originally posted by Justiful:

3. Harmonics are how you can tell if your guitar is INTONED. if you KNOW how to play them and the game won't register them, it is a good indication it needs intoned.

Harmonics alone won't tell you anything about intonation. You need to compare a harmonic note with a fretted note; this is usually done on the 12th fret, though there are of course other methods.

Also, harmonics do not depend on the intonation being correct. Your guitar's intonation might be way off, but as long as the open strings are in tune, the harmonics will be spot on as well. At least natural harmonics, but I've yet to see Rocksmith use artificial or pinch harmonics.

Originally posted by Justiful:

5. Buzzzzzz.... If you guitar is buzzing it is NOT intoned properly even if it is.... even cheap guitars should not buzz. Even if it is "intoned" according to a tuner, if it is buzzing 50% of the time it might be 50% of time it won't be. You won't be playing many harmonics on a string that has any buzz consistenty, and notes will consistently not register on buzzing frets. see lower in post.

Already addressed above, but bears repeating - buzzing does not affect intonation. Intonation has to do with the length of the string, while buzzing is caused by a number of other factors (most of which you already listed in another post).

Originally posted by Justiful:

There is no such thing as a harmonics playing on a non-intoned guitar. It will be dead if he tries.

Once again, incorrect intonation does not prevent harmonics from ringing out.

Originally posted by Justiful:

Also CHANGE 1 STRING at a time. Do not change them all at once. at MOST change 2 at a time. String them up. Change 2 more. string up ext.

This is not necessary, there's no problem with changing all strings at once. In fact, every now and then it's almost necessary to do so, in order to properly clean the fingerboard (and also oil it, unless of course it's lacquered, like most maple fingerboards).

Originally posted by Preacher403:

And never touch the truss rod until you have some idea of what you are doing...intonation is NOT something you should be touching the truss rod for.

The last sentence is not entirely correct. If the truss rod is too loose, string tension creates too much neck relief, which results in excessive string height towards the middle of the neck and consequently fretted notes sounding sharp. The proper response to that would be tightening the truss rod, to counteract the string tension (though not so much as to eliminate neck relief completely).

Other than that, though, the proper place for correcting intonation problems is indeed at the bridge.

[Just]

Thanks for the replies.


I wrote a lot more. I disagreed with the Harmonic thing but realized I was getting way too technical. I will explain it to you in a privat chat and you will either convince me I am wrong or you won't :-) but it is not that big a deal. We are both right, you that a guitar will play the harmonic accousticly, Me that it won't always play the harmonic ( because of how pickups work on non-intoned guitars, and transfer sound to amps, computers ext )
As far as intone affecting buzz. I wrote an explanation. It got far too technical. I deleated it. Most buzz is not caused by intonation. Some buzz can be eliminated by intonation. I will say no more. I agree with you, I also disagree. It really depends.

I decided I will re-write this in a few days to be much much less wall of text. With more generalities. It had gotten far too specific. Most players don't need to know how stuff works. They can google it themselves and get better answers. They just want to know why their game won't register notes.

The basic principle I was trying to get accross was how to avoid fret buzz, and what to do if notes won't register in game. I think I will re-focus on that so it can be more useful to new players. Without getting super technical.

[Indrek]

Originally posted by Justiful:

Harmonics won't play if the intrument is not intoned properly. But let me clarify further. They will not play in the proper position. Which is what people should be learning to do. :-)

Fair enough, though I don't think your average intonation issues could cause the harmonic nodes to shift so much that they won't ring at all when played in the correct position.

Originally posted by Justiful:

For an intonation using only harmonics not a Tuner, you do not just play the 12th fret. You play several harmonics on each string.

True, it's a good idea to check intonation on several frets. Ideally you'd check each fret with a tuner, but if you're using harmonics as a comparison, then that limits the frets you can check considerably. Note, however, that if you have localised intonation issues (everything seems OK in one position but fretted notes ring sharp or flat in another), then the problem is probably with the frets, and therefore nothing you can fix yourself anyway.

Originally posted by Justiful:

If your guitar plays the harmonic above the fret, it can cause notes played near the fret, that normally would ring true... to BUZZ. :-) Test it yourself. It is especially noticable on Barre chords. Where you must play right at the fret. If the harmonic plays below the fret people stretching across 5 frets for a chord shape who can not reach the "perfect" fret position will get a dead, or muffled note.

Sorry, I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. If you get buzz or a muffled sound when fretting a note, that has to do with playing technique and will happen regardless of whether or not the guitar has correct intonation.

Originally posted by Justiful:

Any guitar can play a harmonic out of position above or below a fret... BUT that harmonic will not translate through the pickups to your amp :-) or in this case the game-- Some guitars will but many will not. It has to do with the location, type, and setup of the pickup which is a whole other ball of wax. It has to do with the exacting nature of pickups. If your string is out of position even if ACCOUSTICLY it will play a harmonic... Through the amp, and some pickups it won't for some or all harmonics.

Okay, I see what you're saying here, but once again I don't think the average intonation issues can cause the harmonic nodes to shift enough to make a difference. If we talk strictly about Rocksmith, which I've yet to see use anything other than 2nd, 3rd and 4th natural harmonics (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong here), at most you will actually get a benefit from intonation issues as the 4th harmonic will start ringing out on neck pickups (which are directly underneath the node on most guitars). If we talk about guitar technique in general, then we're no longer restricted to natural harmonics, and artificials will shift the nodes around much more than intonation issues ever will.

Bottom line - if you're having issues with the game detecting harmonics, technique is a much more likely cause than intonation. Or, if the problems are only with the 4th harmonic (over the 5th fret), just switch away from the neck pickup.

Originally posted by Justiful:

As far as the string thing goes. For some players they can change multiple strings at once. BUT for a lot of players they can not. Why? Some bridges require tension on the bridge not to move. Also removing all tension from neck can cause the truss to shift. (on cheap guitars, with bolt in neck style. back. )

Just as a general principle a inexperienced person should not remove all strings. It makes retuning the strings easier. It also prevents the bridge from moving. Which is not a big deal on some models, but on others it is a very big deal.

I disagree. For one, floating bridges (which I assume you're talking about) will move the moment you remove even one string, so you'll need to readjust them anyway, regardless of how many strings you change at once. And secondly, every guitarist should be able to set up their instrument from zero - tuning, intonation, string height, neck relief, pickup height, etc. If you're an advanced enough player to be using a floating bridge, then you have no excuse for not being able to set it up properly after removing all strings at once. Like I said, you have to do it every now and then anyway.

As for the truss rod, while it will obviously shift a little (just like it will shift during normal adjustments), it's nowhere near enough to cause any problems. If it is, then the guitar was rubbish to begin with and you probably saved yourself a lot of headache down the road by breaking it. At least this way you have an excuse for buying a better guitar.

See also here: http://www.frets.com/FretsPages/General/faq.html#All%20at%20once

Originally posted by Justiful:

Every Gibson and Epiphone will say in the manual never to do it. or it could "permantely damage" your instrument. Which is not exactly true in most cases, however it was put there for a reason.

Yeah, it's probably the same reason the manuals of all electronic devices that come with some sort of AC adapter say you should only use it with the adapter that it came with. It doesn't mean the device will be permanently damaged the moment you plug in a different adapter. So long as the specs match, it will work - it's not like the manufacturer's own adapter produces some special, magical form of electricity. But if you do use a wrong type of adapter and the manufacturer finds out, they will refuse to fix the problem under warranty. Just like if you handle your guitar carelessly, Gibson/Epiphone/whoever will refuse to fix it for free. The warning about changing strings is there simply to cover all possible bases and give them the maximum amount of excuses and loopholes.

If you can cite an actual known case where changing all strings at once has caused damage to the neck, I'd be very interested in reading about it.