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Bolt on neck problems/ HELP

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5/3/2003 1:14 PM

Bolt on neck problems/ HELP

I bought a collection of parts to put together a tele. I got the guitar together, but despite the fact that the nut has barely been slotted and the saddles are raised about as high as they can go, I'm still getting string buzz from around the 7th fret UP. I've tried adjusting the truss rod. I've tried shimming the neck from the top of the pocket and from the bottom of the pocket. The only thing I know to do next is to start sanding the neck heel. That seems a little extreme. Anybody got any suggestions?

5/3/2003 6:41 PM

Do you live in an extremely dry climate such as desert area or in any of the rocky mountain states?

Before adjusting the truss rod, make sure your wood is not too dried out. Most guitar wood is commercially cut to be 'straight' at about 40% relative humidity.

If the wood is too dry, the neck will bend backwards as the moisture in the wood evaporates, leaving strings that are too low to the fret board.

If the wood is too wet, the neck will bow forward as the moisture content in the wood becomes even denser than average, leading to strings that are too high off the fret board. This problem occurs if you live in a humid area like the gulf coast of Texas.

The solution for dry wood is to place a guitar humidifier in the case.

LFO

5/4/2003 7:11 AM

David:

The only thing I know to do next is to start sanding the neck heel. That seems a little extreme.

I believe that is your next step although you might try longer set screws in the saddles. Be sure to return the truss rod tension back to where it was before; the purpose of the truss rod is to keep the neck straight rather than to compensate for mismatched parts.

Instead of removing wood from the back of the neck heel, you could try removing wood from the neck pocket on the body, but it'd be a lot harder to keep it flat.

--Good luck!

Steve Ahola

5/6/2003 6:39 PM

What you should do next, is tell us what the string height is at the 12th fret and at the last fret(at the body), with the strings capo'ed at the first fret. (measure from the fret tops to the string bottoms.)
You should also get the neck as straight as possible for this reading, with a hair of relief instead of a hair of back-bow.
I suspect the neck is in need of a good fret-board reshaping and refretting, if you want it to play great with low action.
Any time I buy a "parts neck", I end up reshaping the fret-board with my stew-mac neck-jig and get a kick out of making a 50 dollar neck play like a neck on a 2,500 dollar guitar.

I might not be able to look back here soon enough to give you more help, but with the string height info, you should be able to get more detailed advice from others.

All I can add right now, is that if your strings are 1/16" high at the 12th fret on up, and you're still getting buzzing, I think you have a fret-board hump and/or some uneven frets.

On my guitars, the high E is a hair higher than 1/32" at the 12th fret. the low E is a hair over 3/64". It used to be a hair lower, but I like playing rhythm more now and don't even want to have the lowest possible action, although It's very close to being the lowest possible.

Good Luck

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