Agile Septor Elite 827 - Game breaking glitch

[meshuggahner]

Hey guys,

I need some advice. I recently got an Agile Septor Elite 827 from Rondo Music (this guy - Agile Septor Elite 827 EB DNC Tribal Purple at RondoMusic.com), but it has ridiculous fret buzz problems on the low frets, and is pretty much unplayable on anything but clean tones. Here's what happens if I palm mute a low bar chord with distortion - fret buzz harmonics problem by Kriztov on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free
I'd usually fix this by adjusting the neck forward, but the neck is already bent in this direction. Straightening the neck out also results in strings actually touching frets
Does anybody have any tips for eliminating low fret buzz? I'm not sure what else I can try, short of either getting a new nut put in that is a little higher, or getting the frets polished down to create more of a gap between the fret + string (which I don't like the idea of because they're only Jumbo sized frets & I'm used to Extra Jumbo). Has anyone else had problems like this in the past?

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Are the frets level?
What's the neck relief at?
How's your action across the neck and strings?
Stock strings still? If not what gauges and tuning now?
How well are the strings seated at the nut?
What exact frets are being affected?
Are all strings at those frets being affected?

 

[meshuggahner]

Are the frets level?
It's hard to say without any decent equipment to measure with, but going by eye they look fairly even all over the neck. I'm a total n00b when it comes to setting up guitars, so apologies if I don't give the best answers

What's the neck relief at?
again I don't really know how to measure that either sorry, it's just bent slightly forward to the eye

How's your action across the neck and strings?
It's low for the first 4-5 frets, then starts to get higher, so by the 17th-24th frets the distance from fret to string has probably tripled, so the action is a little high above the 12th fret for my taste.

Stock strings still? If not what gauges and tuning now?
Still stock strings, gauges .009, .012, .015, .022, .030, .040, .054, .074 and tuned to standard with the 8th string dropped to E. I would like to put heavier strings on it, but I'm worried thicker strings will just add to the problem?

How well are the strings seated at the nut?
The highest 6 strings all sit well in the nut, but it looks like the grooves for the 7th & 8th strings might have been dug a little too deep as they're a lot closer to the fretboard than the others.

What exact frets are being affected?
the 7th & 8th strings are affected the most, palm muting any lower than the 6th fret risks that awful harmonic sound popping up from the buzz. There's also an audible buzz on the following frets when I play not plugged in, but it's sort of hidden by distortion (unless I palm mute):
8th string: 0,1,2,3,4,5,6 (gets a little better) 7,8,9
7th: 0,1,2,3,4,5,improves a little then slight buzz all the way to 23rd fret
6th: 1-14th
5th: 1-13th
4th: 1-5th
3rd: 1,2,3
2nd: 1,2
1st: all good

I'm planning on taking it to a guitar shop to get looked at, I'm just curious if there's anything I can try at home first because it's handy to know how to fix things like this myself. I'm thinking it's a bit beyond my skill levels though

 

[JoeJohn777]

Sounds like you may not have enough forward bow in the neck and your bridge action set too high. I know you said the neck already has forward bow but just sighting down the neck can create an optical illusion making that method inaccurate. Try loosening the truss rod to where there is little to no buzz on the first 5 frets, then lower the action at the bridge accordingly to get your desired action on the upper frets. This should balance everything and hopefully make the guitar much more playable.

 

[beneharris]

without a proper setup it would be hard to tell you whether or not its a real problem. it could just be a combination of the truss rod not being adjusted, old strings, bridge not set right, that sort of thing.

if i were you i'd either take the time to learn on it; watch some videos and read up, or just bite the bullet and take it in. if it is a real problem with the guitar you're going to want to know so you can get it returned within rondo's return window (i have no idea how long this is).

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Are the frets level?
It's hard to say without any decent equipment to measure with, but going by eye they look fairly even all over the neck. I'm a total n00b when it comes to setting up guitars, so apologies if I don't give the best answers

What's the neck relief at?
again I don't really know how to measure that either sorry, it's just bent slightly forward to the eye

How's your action across the neck and strings?
It's low for the first 4-5 frets, then starts to get higher, so by the 17th-24th frets the distance from fret to string has probably tripled, so the action is a little high above the 12th fret for my taste.

Stock strings still? If not what gauges and tuning now?
Still stock strings, gauges .009, .012, .015, .022, .030, .040, .054, .074 and tuned to standard with the 8th string dropped to E. I would like to put heavier strings on it, but I'm worried thicker strings will just add to the problem?

How well are the strings seated at the nut?
The highest 6 strings all sit well in the nut, but it looks like the grooves for the 7th & 8th strings might have been dug a little too deep as they're a lot closer to the fretboard than the others.

What exact frets are being affected?
the 7th & 8th strings are affected the most, palm muting any lower than the 6th fret risks that awful harmonic sound popping up from the buzz. There's also an audible buzz on the following frets when I play not plugged in, but it's sort of hidden by distortion (unless I palm mute):
8th string: 0,1,2,3,4,5,6 (gets a little better) 7,8,9
7th: 0,1,2,3,4,5,improves a little then slight buzz all the way to 23rd fret
6th: 1-14th
5th: 1-13th
4th: 1-5th
3rd: 1,2,3
2nd: 1,2
1st: all good

I'm planning on taking it to a guitar shop to get looked at, I'm just curious if there's anything I can try at home first because it's handy to know how to fix things like this myself. I'm thinking it's a bit beyond my skill levels though

It seems less like a problem with the guitar, for now at least, and more of a simple setup issue.

Read through some of these tutorials and get back to me.

Project Guitar :: How to setup a solid body guitar

 

[drjeffreyodweyer]

Try to setup the tross rods.
My truss rods were completely f*cked up when i got the guitar (agiel septor 827). One was extremely tight, the other one was completely loose. So the neck was bent vertical and horizontal