I Have A Neck Question

[ibreakemineedtobuildem]

Here goes,

Say I build a perfectly flat neck and perfectly radiused board.

Then I level the frets to be flat.So then I put a straight edge

on my neck and frets and it is flat.

When I string it up,it will slightly upbow from string tension.Am I supposed to counteract that tension with my truss rod to bring it back to flat?

Do I leave this?

What is a properly built guitar neck supposed to look like strung up?

Is a little upbow needed?

[Daniel Sorbera]

that depends. What do you mean by a little? You need a LITTLE up bow or else when you play near the nut it will buzz. You can acheive a lower action with a little up bow.

[Setch]

A little up-bow (properly called 'relief') is normal, and many folks prefer it. A totally flat neck can play well, but I favour some relief since a plucked string vibrates in a curved path, so a neck curvature which follows that makes sense to me.

It's a shame soapbarstrat spat the dummy and left, he was a proponent of dead flat necks, and I'd have been interested to hear his thoughts on this. I must admit I still don't really understand the role of the neckjig in a neck with relief, maybe GuitarFrenzy can weigh in here?

[32251]

Many variables.

What guage strings, fingerboard density, neck wood stiffness etc. will all determine how much forward bow after stringing. You may have none!! Seen that many times working on necks. Best scenario is to build a little FB into the neck. A taste of back bow and then level flat. Make sure you prepare a nice fret slot when fretting or the neck will back bow when you drive the fret into the slot. After you fret the neck there should be a VERY slight amount of FB when the rod is loose and that will come right out when the rod is tightened.

You can get by with a straight neck but your going to have to raise the action until the guitar plays good up to about the 5th fret. A straight neck will usually give lower action at the nut end and higher at the body since you are in essence giving neck "relief" by raising the action. A little FB will let you have a lower action all over the neck if that is what you are looking for.

[thedoctor]

Yeah, I tried to get soapbar to stick around but people were messing with his head. Anyhow, the trussrod IS to counteract the force of the strings but is not really part of setting your action once you know the neck-shape needed for your playing style. Soapbar liked dead-flat and that works well for an electric used with picks and effects. A little relief will actually let your action be lower at the 12th fret and still give you a pretty clean open and lower-fret play-style. People get all uptight about using the trussrod to "set the action". Well, it DOES literally level the playing field for type of action you want. Nut and bridge adjustments really set the action. Is that muddy enough?

[westhemann]

i also prefer a neck to be dead flat....neck relief doesn't really "jive" with the logic in my head.especially considering you can't really get relief on frets 12 through 24,and they play fine.

the lowest action i was ever able to get was on a jackson where the neck was dead level...the strings barely cleared the frets all the way down,and there was no string buzz at all....i had to raise it though because my fingers kept slipping off the strings while trying to bend

[thedoctor]

I must say, the flattest neck I have ever set up with no buzzing or finger-pressure intonation problems was a Jackson. They "got it going on" as far as necks go. It has got to be a fret-height and leveling thing cause I see the same low action on a lot of Jacksons.

Edited January 14, 2005 by thedoctor