One of my strats has been on the naughty step for a while because it developed a choking issue on the top string from probably around the 10th to 14th fret. We're talking a 9.5" radius neck and having to have the action approaching 2mm to get clean 3 semitone bends on the High E. Kind of pissed me off because I didn't feel I'd played it so much to have materially worn the frets since it last played great and didn't have this problem.
So I took it out again today to give it another look over and noticed it had a fair amount of relief on the neck. Maybe .012" - .014" I knocked that down to around .005" and the high up choking went away. I started tentatively lowering the action and now with an action of around 1.5mm there's no choking anywhere.
I'm pleased, but also curious. How come reducing relief solved that issue?
ps. sorry for the mixed measures (mm, thou etc!)
Comments
I know that sounds like a ‘it’s magic’ explanation, but I’ve come across similar things enough times to just accept that if the result is good, don’t over-think it .
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein