Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Tech => Topic started by: indysmith on August 16, 2007, 07:58:23 PM
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The neck on my strat is too straight, resulting in an annoying amount of fret buzz.
I've never adjusted a truss rod before - but the principle seems fairly straightforward.
I'm loosening the truss rod to try to create more of an up-bow to give it some more relief, but I've had no effect. I've loosened it by about two turns now with no luck at all. Absolutely no effect!
I'm thinking that perhaps i should leave the guitar and its neck to settle and form some relief - maybe it's not an instant effect?
Can someone please help me out?
This is a 60's style strat, meaning that every time i want to make an adjustment i have to take the neck off, and after taking it off, adjusting, putting back on, and re-tuning about 5 times now i'm getting impatient.
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Tried turning it the other way?
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Is it turning easily?
and are you sure you are loosening it?
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the neck probably doesnt have a two way truss rod which makes it hard to induce relief.
it the truss rod nut now completely loose?
is so tighten it enough so it stay on and leave ot overnight to settle now you have played with it a bit, best to leave them to settle in. Probably tune it slightly high as well
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definately loosening it - turning the other way i need to use more torque.
It's really loose now.
Wez what do you mean "tighten it enough so it stay on"...stay on what? It doesn't have a nut - it's a 60's style strat truss rod, with just what looks like the end of a screw in the end of the neck that's in contact with the body.
I think i'll just tune it a bit high and leave it
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well that screw thing is the trus rod nut.
basically truss rods come in two flavours 1 or 2 way.
traditional one way rods (like i assume you have) that are curved in the neck. As you tighten the rod it shortens and tries to get straight - this induces backbow which conteracts the pull of the string. The only way it can induce forward bow is if it had already been tightened to reduce back bow - if its straight from the factory and they never had to tighten it to reduce back bow then you wont be able to use it to get forward bow!!!!
now if you turn this backwards it will become loose and effectively not be doing anything - if you do it too much the adjustment nut (or screw in your case) will sometimes fall off.
Now at this stage its best to leave it all to settle, wood doesnt want to be made to move quickly!!.
If it doesnt go straight through slightly exaggerated string tension there are other ways to sort it but its more pro stuff.
the cheats way is to tighten it so it has back bow, then re-level the frets. then when you loosen it it will have forward bow. But obvioulsy a bit more fretwear in the middle of the board :( I dont like this method but if refretting a neck with a one way truss rod i induce back bow and re-level the actual fretboard before refretting. Then i have the option of adding some forward bow later if i need it and all the frets will be the same height.... thats probably a bit more than you wanted to know
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that's a clever way to fix it but i'm not that techy :P ,
so all i've done is tuned it to open E with 11s on it and with the nut loose; I'll be leaving it overnight and We'll see if anything's happenned then...
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it should do it . . . eventually
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meh it's exactly the same today. this is gonna take a long time isn't it?
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yeah probably. Different techniques work well for different necks so i dont really want to suggest anything that might not suit that particular neck... at this stage its probably worth getting a pro to look at the guitar - its always easier to know what approach to take when you can see the guitar
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alright - I'm going away today - i'll be back next monday. I'll leave it til then, and if it's done bugger all then I'll send it to my local guitar tech. He works for Fender so should be able to fix her up nicely.
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he said my epi ZW was nice :?
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he said my epi ZW was nice :?
lol - isn't it?
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its fine,
but its a sticker, which seems cr@p and it sounds erm just square
either way, he is a cool guy - and said he had a 1960 LP doublecut junior or something at one point which seems very nice
something weird though, he said my gibson dirty fingers were low output :?
won't be too fussed when i put cold sweats in there anyway
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okay the neck has done nothing at all. I'll take it to Terry i guess, see what he can do
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...I never did get round to fixing this strat up...UNTIL TODAY.
I noticed it lying in the corner of the room and decided to do something about it. I've put a 1mm plectrum in the neck pocket as a shim, and that got rid of the buzz; then i was free to use the action adjusting screws on the bridge to level out the saddles a bit more and it feels godly.
Only complaint i have is that the plectrum shim seems like a bit of a bodge. is there anyone that makes them professionally? if not can one of you guys (wez/jonathan/bob/anyone else) make me a simple maple shim to stick in there? PM me with quotes for prices...
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Fender use small pieces of cardboard as shims - your plectrum seems fine to me as a solution!
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the thing is i've used it to increase the angle of the neck and it looks a bit dodgy with a 1mm gap at the heel where you can see the screws holding the neck on and a plectrum jammed in, lol
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I used bits of card from a cereal box for years in one of my guitars and it was a major overhaul that prompted their removal but they did the job.
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i usually use a bit of wood veneer if i am shimming a neck, i generally have a few different thicknesses lying around. Usually about 5mm and 50mm long. I place the shim just in front of the back 2 neck screws rather than right at the back of the pocket - but that usually depends on how much angle i am trying to get. The neck should still screw down nice and tight at the front edge of the pocket and teh gap at the back should be barely noticeable
A plectrum will make do but isnt really the ideal shape and doesnt create a neat angle increase like a straight bit of wood.
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I use bits of wet-or-dry sandpaper - on the theory that it won't compress and much as cardboard, and it ought to hold together if the guitar gets wet (God forbid, but be prepared for all eventualities...)
I remember a Dan Erlewine column in Guitar Player where he made a proper tapered shim from a bit of maple. It was about 1mm thick at the front and tapered away to literally nothing at the other end - it looked like a thin shaving from a block of cheese!
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What's this neck shim stuff about then? My Strat STILL buzzes after a good set up, only slightly noticable but still enough to piss me off. ANy good resources out there to school me?
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...I never did get round to fixing this strat up...UNTIL TODAY.
I noticed it lying in the corner of the room and decided to do something about it. I've put a 1mm plectrum in the neck pocket as a shim, and that got rid of the buzz; then i was free to use the action adjusting screws on the bridge to level out the saddles a bit more and it feels godly.
Only complaint i have is that the plectrum shim seems like a bit of a bodge. is there anyone that makes them professionally? if not can one of you guys (wez/jonathan/bob/anyone else) make me a simple maple shim to stick in there? PM me with quotes for prices...
Can you clarify where in the neck pocket you have put the shim/plectrum?
If it's under the heel of the neck then where exactly???
It certainly wont rescue an over-straight neck, but if it is at the trailing edge of the pocket it will have tilted the neck & raised the action somewhat and that will give you extra clearance and reduce buzzing but at the expense of your low action.
Actually I will assume that the above is what you have done as if the shim is at the body end of the cavity it will have tilted the neck the other way which would have lowered your action which certainly wont have helped the buzz situation....
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...I never did get round to fixing this strat up...UNTIL TODAY.
I noticed it lying in the corner of the room and decided to do something about it. I've put a 1mm plectrum in the neck pocket as a shim, and that got rid of the buzz; then i was free to use the action adjusting screws on the bridge to level out the saddles a bit more and it feels godly.
Only complaint i have is that the plectrum shim seems like a bit of a bodge. is there anyone that makes them professionally? if not can one of you guys (wez/jonathan/bob/anyone else) make me a simple maple shim to stick in there? PM me with quotes for prices...
Can you clarify where in the neck pocket you have put the shim/plectrum?
If it's under the heel of the neck then where exactly???
It certainly wont rescue an over-straight neck, but if it is at the trailing edge of the pocket it will have tilted the neck & raised the action somewhat and that will give you extra clearance and reduce buzzing but at the expense of your low action.
Actually I will assume that the above is what you have done as if the shim is at the body end of the cavity it will have tilted the neck the other way which would have lowered your action which certainly wont have helped the buzz situation....
yes you're right - i've used the shim to give extra clearance and get rid of the low action (it was so low that i couldn't stop it buzzing). It looks like (from browsing other forums) most people use the shim the other way, to get lower action - which obviously would look far less messy. any chance you could make me a shim for a standard strat neck pocket of about 1mm like the dan erlewine one that Phlliy Q mentioned? - i'd do it myself but i don't have any maple or woodworking skills of any sort.
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*bump*
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Not much help if you're not a woodworker, but it's on pages 74-75 of the Guitar Player Repair Guide. Turns out the shim was mahogany, not maple, and it doesn't have the photo - but it explains how to make one.