Neck Relief

[JustBecos]

I was just wondering what people think a good starting point for adjusting the truss rod on a guitar neck is.

Personally I find when setting up my guitars it is best if the neck isn't completely straight as I can get a lower action with out fret buzz and less choking of bends, but I'm not sure how much relief you can generally get away with before the intonation gets to messed up. At present I start at approx 1mm gap on a straight edge from  nut  12th fret and adjust from there.

Just after opinions how other people like there necks in this respect.

[Shag101]

I was just wondering what people think a good starting point for adjusting the truss rod on a guitar neck is.

Personally I find when setting up my guitars it is best if the neck isn't completely straight as I can get a lower action with out fret buzz and less choking of bends, but I'm not sure how much relief you can generally get away with before the intonation gets to messed up. At present I start at approx 1mm gap on a straight edge from  nut  12th fret and adjust from there.

Just after opinions how other people like there necks in this respect.

The neck should not be straight.  It should have some relief since the strings vibrate like a jump rope.  I go by the standard of holding down the 1st and 16th fret of the G and look at the relief from the 6th fret.  1 to 2 business cards is what I like for the gap.  As for hight of strings.  I also go by standard of 3mm on 6th (bass) and 2mm on 1st (treble) at the 12th fret.

For acoustic its 1st and 14th fret to tell relief.  

Maybe you know this and I just completly mis-read your thread...

thanks
chris

[greg]

as above - the neck cannot be straight. i mean most guitarist prefer some relief and also it's much easier to achieve reasonable action and no fret buzzing with some relief. there is a confusion how to measure relief. some manufacturer advice to hold down a string on the first and last fret (vide fender) and measure relief over the 8th fret (roughly middle of a fretboard). others advise to hold down on the 2nd and 14th or so. obviously different method of measurement gives you different result.
using fender method a usual neck relief is between 0.2 and 0.3 mm (about 0.008-0.012"). also give more relief for low neck radius.
you have to experiment. the neck relief affects mostly action over 3-9 frets. if you have fret buzzing somewhere between 4th and 7th fret - adjust a neck relief. if you have a fret buzzing on 15th-19th - adjust a bridge height.
always do it in small steps. after setting up a dozen guitar you will be able to do it quite smootly.