Gear Review: Aero dBuz

Ever deal with that annoying buzz that disappears when you touch your guitar’s strings or bridge? You’ve got ground buzz! Ripping apart your guitar to shield the control cavity is a gamble that could even welcome more buzz. My advice of trying to buy a third hand is just ludicrous, so let’s look at a solution that doesn’t involve modding anyone’s guitar or body!

The Aero dBuz is an instrument cable with a little something extra. That something extra is a brass disk—that's the size of a nickel and is attached to almost 2 feet of wire—that comes off the end of the cable that plugs into your guitar. Once your guitar is plugged in, wrap the disk over your strap button and tuck it in your waistband so it makes light contact with your skin. After contact is made, the dBuz will eliminate 99.99% of ground noise.

If you just said, “Tuck it where?” or have a complex wardrobe, as long as the dBuz makes constant contact with your skin, it will work. The waist of your pants works best.

dBuz's standard model is a 20’ long cable with straight ¼” plugs on each end. If you need a different length or prefer right angle ¼” plugs, give them a call. Aero designs and builds all its own products in Hilo, Hawaii. Aero is mostly known for its pickups and their ability to customize, so if the company doesn’t already build what you’re looking for, it can probably make it for you.

To test it out I tried the dBuz with a Fender Jazz Bass, a Tacoma acoustic, Gibson SG and a Fender Telecaster. With each guitar I felt the dBuz had plenty of slack. Obviously, with the disk attached to me, it ruled out any heroic guitar flips, but it made practicing through an amp next to a laptop screen almost silent.

It was almost liberating, trying to get as much buzz as I could in the beginning of the clip! I tuned my Tele to Open-D so I could sustain notes without touching the guitar. I start the clip without the dBuz disk attached to my body. Halfway through the clip, I tucked the dBuz disk onto my waste and repeated the process, this time ground buzz free.

For more on the Aero dBuz ($50), head on over to aeroinstrument.com.