Originally Posted by Yonder22

hey guys,
i bought my first guitar about 2 weeks ago...and i'm progressing fairly well I think..i've about got ben harper's "walk away" down from memory...but there's one thing that is driving me absolutely nuts...

the low E string on my guitar makes this horrible, grating, metal-on-metal vibrating noise that completely kills the tone...it doesn't do it all the time, but always on the 5th fret and occasionally the 2nd. I can control it somewhat on the 2nd fret by either bending the string up slightly toward the top edge of the fretboard or not picking quite so hard...but no matter what i do, the 5th fret always makes that horrid sound.

i don't know if maybe my strings are shot, the string is out of tune, or if it might be just the novice screwing up. Every other note i try to play on the E string or any other string sounds just dandy to me. I'm playing a used Ibanez that I found at a local pawn shop, so I don't know if its previous owner ever changed out the strings, or in what kind of condition the guitar was kept. Any input y'all can give me would be greatly appreciated.