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No sound when fingered

My buddy just finished building his guitar. You strum it and it sounds great! You try to finger it and it mutes. Even when trying to play acoustic it has NO SOUND when you try to finger it. What would cause this?????

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Permalink Reply by Bad Wolf on January 31, 2013 at 9:38am

if i had to guess i would say you dont have enough string break angle over your bridge and nut. why it would do this i dont know but thats what im going with

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on January 31, 2013 at 1:19pm

That's what it looks like from the pics. I did the same as MadDog, blew up pic #2; strings are flat to the fretboard when fingered. Pic #1 shows almost no break angle at the bridge. The strings are binding on the fretboard when fingered (like I said originally - hitting something - just not the box edge, so I was wrong there) on the headstock side of the bridge. They are basically flat on the tailpiece side of the bridge, though indeed lifted off the top of the box. Not enough string break angle on the tailpiece side means not enough downward force on the bridge, hence not enough string vibration transferred through the bridge to the box top, resulting in little vibration of the box top. Ergo, low to no volume. Increase string break angle, and thus, downward force on the bridge, on the tailpiece side, by raising the bridge height. Try using thin wood shims or "biscuits" ( a bag of these is readily available for under 5 bucks at Michael's, Hobby Lobby, Lowe's or Home Depot); loosen strings, then start inserting shims under the bridge one at a time, retensioning the strings after each one, until you find the height where the box rings out when fingered. Then make a new bridge to that height. Should solve the volume problem.

Had a relook at Pic #1: quick string break angle fix would be to simply slide the existing bridge back toward the tailpiece. I have a Wichita Sam build where the bridge ( a steel rod ) had to be slid back to within 1-1/2" of the tailpiece end of the box to increase the string break angle on the tailpiece side to get it to ring out; that box prefers to be tuned GDgd, and doesn't ring true at other tunings. So, try sliding your bridge back some towards the tailpiece, and monkey with the tunings; if that doesn't work, then rebuild your bridge at its existing location, using the method described above. For a 25" scale you should be able to calculate where the bridge should be, but it still may require one or more of these refinements to fix the problem.

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Permalink Reply by Joe Bowen on January 31, 2013 at 1:27pm

Thanks for all the help. Tomorrow I will go back over there and see what we can finger out!! oops I mean FIGURE...lol Thanks again!

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Permalink Reply by Bad Wolf on February 1, 2013 at 3:43am

anotther option is to do what i had to do on my first build, add something before the bridge to push the strings down to get a better angle over the bridge. i add a small brass plated piece of metal to push the strings down and it worked great

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on February 1, 2013 at 4:12am

Another way to skin the cat: tailpiece side string trees. Good solution and nice
work, BW!

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Permalink Reply by Randy S. Bretz on February 1, 2013 at 1:52am

I see there`s no break angle between the bridge and tailpiece. You need that downward pressure after the bridge. Yep add a 1/4" fretboard and a taller bridge which in turn will give you that needed string break to the tailpiece.

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Permalink Reply by Joe Bowen on February 2, 2013 at 9:15am

ok he raised the nut and the bridge, re tuned it and still doing same thing! Next he will try some sort of string tree before bridge and aft the nut.

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Permalink Reply by Maddog on February 2, 2013 at 9:58am

He shouldn't raise the nut, only the saddle/bridge. If you raise the bridge and the nut you just increase string height and solve nothing as far as string to fretboard angle.

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Permalink Reply by Joe Bowen on February 2, 2013 at 10:01am

OH OK!! I will tell him to use original nut and raise the saddle/bridge. Thanks

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Permalink Reply by Jim Woods on February 3, 2013 at 11:30am

Looks like you have some good advice. One thing I have noticed on my fretless in addition is if I do not have it tuned up close to GDg for example, there is not enough string tension to generate sound. And you have to exert a fair amoung of pressure on the string to play fretless. The measurement you want to look at is the 12th fret when fretted at the say 5th fret - you should have 1/8" or so cleareance of the string.

Have fun!