unclej Posted January 6, 2006 Report Share Posted January 6, 2006 well, that probably sounded kinda weird but i am curious about something. i've had two guitars just this week in that had a noticeable hump in the area of the fretboard from the neck joint to the end of the board. in both cases, as in others that i've worked on in the past, there was extreme buzzing when the rest of the neck was set at the proper relief and the saddle at the proper height to allow easy fretting. my question isn't how to fix it but what causes it? i see it more often in cheap guitars but have also seen it on some mid-priced and upper end guitars. so i'm wondering if it's a humidity thing or a manufacturing defect. anyone have any specific knowledge of the problem? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwedishLuthier Posted January 6, 2006 Report Share Posted January 6, 2006 In what direction is the hump? Is it like an angle in the fret board as if it’s about to fold itself at the neck/body joint? This can also be described as the fret board has an uphill from the joint. If so, the guitars need a neck reset. The problem is caused by the dove tail joint disintegrating. This is probably glue failure caused by high temperature when the guitars were left in a car a hot day. Frank Ford is a master on those issues. Check out www.frets.com He also has some very interesting tests regarding glues and temperatures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclej Posted January 6, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2006 In what direction is the hump? Is it like an angle in the fret board as if it’s about to fold itself at the neck/body joint? This can also be described as the fret board has an uphill from the joint. If so, the guitars need a neck reset. The problem is caused by the dove tail joint disintegrating. This is probably glue failure caused by high temperature when the guitars were left in a car a hot day. Frank Ford is a master on those issues. Check out www.frets.com He also has some very interesting tests regarding glues and temperatures. ← thanks..i'd describe it as a slight hill starting at the joint, going up a bit and then back down toward the end of the fretboard. there isn't any apparant crack in the joint where the heel meets the guitar so i didn't even think about the dove tail. i'll definitely check out the Ford site and again, thanks for the info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwedishLuthier Posted January 6, 2006 Report Share Posted January 6, 2006 The up and then down again thin makes me a little less sure that it is the dove tail that is collapsing. But it could be so that the up first up part is due to the neck joint failure, and the down part is just the makers attempt to lessen buzz with a slight down hill at the end of the fret board. OR it could be some extra compression on the fret board caused by the joint failure that makes the fretboard (and probably the top) to bulge out a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.