I assembled a Chinese set neck guitar about 12 months ago and was initially impressed with just how resonant the guitar turned out to be, I'd say the most resonant guitar I've owned. I'd used some cheap Chinese tuners (£12 inc delivery) and tuning stability was poor but this didn't surprise me, I suppose you get what you pay for! I had wondered about whether the nut was just poorly cut but did rule this eventually, so have been thinking about upgrading the tuners.
Over time I have suspected the guitar is less resonant or I'd just got over the honeymoon period of how well I'd thought the guitar had turned out.
Yesterday I put the notched straight edge on the fretboard and there was more relief than I'd remembered, and when I had a proper look the string height was higher than I remembered too, so I adjusted the truss rod.
The end result is, the neck is pretty flat, string height down to about 1mm (which is a tad lower than I like), no fret buzz, the resonance I remembered is back and it was still in tune this morning... 24 hours later which hadn't achieved before and I now suspect the tuners are fine.
I do remember adjusting the truss rod pre-finishing/painting, obviously I didn't do a good job that time.
Now for many of you this may seem obvious but I'm still on a learning curve.
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Funnily enough I have an old squier strat which has been setup twice over the past 18 months. Always plays like a dream initially, and then over time I'm sure the action changes for the worst. Most notably around the 12th fret. I presume I have a knackered neck, that may need more regularly adjusting than the more premium guitars I own.
For me and my playing style I'll get by with as little relief as possible - I barely see any relief when I make the appropriate checks - But I play with a very light touch - You'd often find a heavy picker would need a touch more relief
But on most guitars, you'll find a marginal variation of relief, as you move from the colder winter months to warmer summer months and back again - So on all guitars it is better to make a monthly or bi-monthly check
But yes the relief will make a monster difference to the overall playability - But it is just part of the overall adjustment/check that is required to get the correct set-up/balance to the whole guitar
And having learned I got a bit obsessed about measuring with feeler gauges exactly and going for advised relief amounts.
However after a while I've started doing it by eye and feel, what looks and feels right to me. And it's made a big difference to the playability of my guitars.
I watched a Joe Walsh vid a while back and I was amazed that his tech doesn't do anything like this, just eyeballs the neck it from both ends of the guitar - maybe an experienced tech can do it this way but it still seemed a sloppy way to me.
I'd be interested how others do it.
I'd say with the number of guitars Joe has and and the variety of different locations/climates they end up being used in - Joe's man could nearly set the neck relief blindfolded, backstage in a thunderstorm by now
I do much the same thing but simply check that I get a click when I touch the middle of the string (5th fret?). Works for me on acoustics.
It doesn't mean they are flawed though. These days I prefer to have truss rod and string tension in balance in a less stiff neck, rather than a neck that is so stiff the truss rod doesn't really do much
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The ideal setting is as close to dead straight as possible but with just enough relief that the tone opens up - fret rattle occurs before it's actually obvious as rattling, but affects the tone. The exact setting varies with every guitar so there's no absolute hard and fast measurement, but generally if it's bigger than about half the diameter of the G string it's too much.
"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
Also to a lesser degree that it is now staying in tune.
Interestingly the same rule of thumb - half the G string diameter - works for acoustic guitars with larger G strings, and even basses!
"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
I know a bass player like that. He borrows a lot of basses which belong to a dealer I do a lot of work for, and every one of them comes back with the strings almost resting on every fret. He plays with the lightest of touch and huge amounts of amp power, and they don't buzz for him... I find them unplayable like that.
"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