The Definitive Gear Thread

* Aria Pro II Cardinal Series CS-350 Electric Guitar (the red one, Japan made): this was my first decent guitar (after some crappy ones I dare not to mention) and I still play it sometimes for the cleaner, more jazzy stuff. I replaced the neck pickup by a Seymour Duncan and I installed a Floyd Rose tremolo bridge and it's a pretty nice guitar.

* Carvin DC135T Electric Guitar (the blue one, US made): this is the one I play the most, it's a bit following the Ibanez metal-oriented guitars style, great for the heavier stuff and soloing. 1-piece construction, 24 frets neck, Floyd Rose tremolo bridge, humbucker in the bridge and single coils in middle and neck...

* Fender Gemini II acoustic guitar (made in Korea): this was a present and I have never been fond of its sound or playing feel, I would have never bought it myself. Perhaps one day I will be able to afford a Gibson J-200 .

* Peavey Fury bass (US made): following the Fender Precision style, it's quite OK, I'm not really a bass player anyway so for my needs it's good enough. It needs new strings urgently though.

* Yamaha GW50 multi-FX pedalboard: works as single effects pedals or as a multi-FX combinations with 128 factory presets and 128 user presets, more than enough for an amateur like myself, I'm fine with it.

* Boss GT-10 multi-FX pedalboard: I bought this one recently out of a 'buying rush' and I still don't know what to say, it's extremely powerful but you need to spend a lot of time to master it (which I have not done yet). I don't think it's practical as a single effects pedalboard because it does not have independent knobs for each effect's parameters, everything needs to be programmed one by one by menus and a few buttons and a selection wheel, it seems more meant to program your own multi-fx presets and then play with those, and I'm still far from understanding all what it takes. Of course it has many great factory presets too but I'm still a bit lost with it.

* Yamaha PSR2100 Keyboard: this was also a present, I would have never bought it myself. The built-in sounds are not very exciting for rock playing, it's more the kind of keyboard for programming all the rhythms and backing tracks and then play on top the melody to entertain the old guests at an hotel lounge bar in the evening, but OK, with my Vintage Keys sound module I can use it as controller, and for more orchestral sounds such as brass, winds etc it's OK.

* E-Mu Vintage Keys sound module: I just bought this one 2nd hand and I still need to learn about it, but it has many vintage sounds, Moogs, Mellotron, ARPs, Oberheims, Rhodes, Wurly's, CP70 and so on, so it should be fun.

* Hughes & Kettner Attax Series Tour Reverb Amp: 100W, a nice guitar amp.

* Peavey Audition 30W Amp: just for home practicing, I nearly never use it having the H&K, I use it mainly for the keyboard

I have also a bass amp sitting at some friend's place for a few years, don't even remember the model, it was not from any famous brand but it was pretty good and powerful. I am also co-owner of a Roland U-20 keyboard which sits at a friend's place for years (the other co-owner).

In any case, I can't complain about gear, what I need now is starting to play again!

Of course by 'luthier' I didn't mean here someone who actually builds guitars, just someone who knows how to set them up, some music stores have such a guy, or otherwise they will send the guitar to someone, but by experience I know that many of the guys in stores who say they can, actually can not.

If you want to try a bit by yourself, the first thing you can do is lift a bit the string(s) which buzz and see it that solves the problem. On the bridge you must have little allen screws to adjust each string height, and you must also have adjustment for each string scale length (the length from the nut to the small piece in the bridge where each string sits). First of all make sure that the length of each string is correct so that when you play on the 12th fret it is exactly one octave up, if you have a tuner you can use it to check this (I guess the GT-8 has one?). As you probably know, the lower strings need to have a bit longer scale and the high strings a bit shorter to play in tune. Sometimes people change the strings to other gauges and forget to adjust this so then the guitar will not play in tune. This is always the first adjustment to check.

Then, if some string has fret buzz, increase its height with the small allen screws until the fret buzz disappears. If you see that in order to avoid the buzz you have to lift up the string too much (so it gets too far from the fretboard) this means that you will need to adjust the neck rod, and this I recommend not to try yourself or you can mess your guitar up, this should be done by someone who knows.

When you have a floating tremolo bridge (as I believe you do by the pic you posted) things can get more complicated but hopefully these simple steps can solve your problem. 

Good luck!

BTW if you play in drop D think also about the strings gauge. A normal 6th string, say for example a 0.48 is designed to play an E at its normal tension, when you downtune it to D the string is looser so it will buzz at the frets more easily, especially in a light-play guitar like yours. A thicker string needs more tension to achieve the same pitch, so in this example trying with a 0.52 could help avoiding the fret buzz when tuned at the same D pitch because the string will be tighter.