Hey guys, new to the program and the bass itself! I got a used bass from FB marketplace that was already setup properly. After a couple months of playing, I suddenly get buzz when plucking the open A string. It buzzes when fretting the first fret as well, but is pretty much good everywhere else. Like I said, it has played buzz-free until now. Any ideas of what it might be? Do I just take it to a local professional to get it setup again? Thanks 
The setup will always fade from hopefully perfect to time for an adjustment.
The truss rod may need an adjustment.
How’s the action compared to a couple months ago?
Check you tube for ‘how to set up your bass’, good to know early as you’ll likely do it yourself in the future anyway…
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The action feels maybe a bit higher but not drastically different. I guess theres just so many variables in play that doing my first setup myself seems daunting
Raise A string on bridge if able-until buzz goes away.
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Not.
There’s only about 3 things to do.
Adjust truss rod, set up string height, dial in the intonation.
The bridge seems very accessible to adjust; it’s a P Bass knock off. I can give this a shot!
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Do the you tube thing…
When you figure out how to check if the truss rod needs adjustment its pretty easy to do a complete setup, including neck straightness, string height and intonation.
You can do a setup faster than making your way to the music store.
Seasons change, as does heat and humidity. I had the same thing on one of my basses, a buzz on the A. The bass went from playing beautifully to buzzzz buzzzzz… All it took was a quick truss rod adjustment and it was fixed. It actually took longer to take the truss rod cover off (one screw), than to do the adjustment itself…
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This. I’d put money on the culprit being the truss rod. As @sunDOG says, seasons change. You’re generally going to want to get used to checking relief, action, and intonation in the spring and fall (and as needed). It’s pretty dry in Colorado, where I live, most of the year and my basses live in the basement where the climate is the most stable in my house. Even still, I have to tweak the truss rod a few times a year.
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It is really super easy to set up your bass + quite convenient
You should try it !
Agreed. What I find interesting is that some of my basses are super-stable, and don’t seem to react at all to the seasonal changes we see in the south of the UK, but others do need tweaks.
Once you get over the nervousness of giving it a go, it’s actually not that hard to give a bass a basic set up, especially given all the YouTube videos out there on bass and guitar set-up, including this one by our favorite bass teacher…
What kind of bass is it? I’ve had that issue with Fender style basses before and it was just that I didn’t have enough down angle on the string between the nut and the tuner.
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This is a notorious issue with Fender headstocks yes, and only on the A string. Thanks for mentioning it. The fact that it’s an open string buzz gives it away.
Open string buzz is clearly not the truss rod folks
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Not necessarily true. Granted, on a Fender-type headstock, if you don’t get enough turns on the string, pulling the string down, that could be the problem as there isn’t a string retainer on the A.
Having said that, there is a solution to buzzin’ A, if it is a string break angle issue:
But it could also be simply that the truss rod needs adjusting, or the bass needs a general set-up…
So… are you envisioning a bass with so much backbow that even the open strings are bottoming out on the frets?
That would be pretty extreme.
I’m sure I could untweak my truss rod and check, but I’m washing my hair this evening… 
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These clips are a pita in my experience. Much easier to put a fret wrap behind the nut
Most of my fender like objects have fret wraps on the headstock behind the nut
Or a barely trimmed A string
My custom bass has a string tree for all strings
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Oh well
Open string buzz and fret buzz are very different problems. Open string buzz in my experience is usually caused by one of three things:
- This issue, for Fender A strings (only)
- Bridge vibration of the backstring against an intonation spring
- Issues with the nut
Truss rod adjustment primarily impacts fret buzz, not open string issues
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I’m not sure if this is related to your issue, but here’s a similar case I’ve seen:
I’ve seen this issue on a Fender Precision as well. If I press the A string with my finger before the nut and play the open string, the noise stops, so it’s probably something that can be fixed at the nut.
However, the buzz doesn’t show up in recordings, so I didn’t really worry about it and just left it as is
This is a classic Fender A string glitch. The A string doesn’t have enough break angle coming off the nut, and when you press down on it you increase the angle, which fixes the issue.
To summarize fixes
- When you restring, increase the winds of the A string so the string so the string winds to the bottom of the post. Which increases the break angle.
- Put a fret wrap on the neck behind the nut, which is essentially the same as pressing your finger on it
- Add a string tree to your headstock
Make no mistake, this is a design flaw
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