Neck Bow

[sexybeast]

This crappy Ibanez I've been fooling with has been giving me trouble. More accurately, I don't know what I'm doing and I'm learning to do set-up on my only working guitar. I'm really dumb, but fearless.

Here's my problem, I have a real fret buzz at the mid part of my neck. I had really heavy strings on a light nek a while ago, which I suspect pulled very hard and bowed it. I responded by twisting the crap out of the truss rod nut. After removing the heavy strings in a flash of brilliance, the neck appeared bowed backward. So I loosened it and applied normal gauge strings.

I've hosed the action. Can anyone tell me how to reset it, and give me a step by step way to get it to play fairly decently? Please hold the taunts until I stop flogging myself with these used strings.

[Devon Headen]

Have you backed the rod all the way back off again and seen how the bow was then?

[sexybeast]

You must think I'm smart! Actually I did consider it, but decided to ask for advice before I touched anything again.

I'll try that and... lay a straight edge against it? Bat pebbles with it?

Just kidding Devon, I'll try that and see where I am. I don't even know what turning the nut one way does in relation to another. Can someone please ginmme a heads up on that?

Edited May 16, 2005 by sexybeast

[Southpa]

The easiest way to be sure about which way to turn is to tighten and loosen it with the strings off while checking with a straightedge to see what happens. Its important to understand how the system works. A slight backbow means the rod is tightened. This is used to counteract the string tension and lessen the forward neck bow. You want to tighten the truss rod only enough to allow a very slight forward bow. This is called "relief" which allows strings to clear the frets and vibrate freely when pressed down. How MUCH do you tighten? Can't say and the variables (neck thickness, wood species, reinforcements/laminates, truss rod mass/ type/material, I could go on and on) are too many to count.

As far as your original problem, ie. the fret buzz, it may not have been trussrod related at all. So have a look thru here and do some reading. Its a good resource for troubleshooting these little problems.

Edited May 16, 2005 by Southpa

[sexybeast]

Okay, dig this. I backed off tension on the truss rod and the neck flattened right out, nice and smooth. I restrung it and the neck bowed a bit too much for my taste, so I gave the truss rod nut a half turn, and voia! everything seems in order. At the moment the action's a bit high, but I'm getting used to it and the strings ring nicely. I'm probably going to work on setting up the bridge and nut later, but for now I'm happy.

I brought this in to a guitar shop and the tech was a real dick to me. He said that the neck is twisted and I should toss it. Guess it goes to show you that arms full of tattoos and a crappy attitude don't make you a good guitar tech.

I pulled the electronics out of this guitar a while back and got lost trying to put them back in, and the same dude was a stroke when I asked to have them wired in again. He asked me what I had done, so I told him. Then he looked at me all shitty and said "Why would you do that?" Because it's mine, tool. So I came to this forum, got some help and did it myself. Hah, knucklehead.

Thanks again.

[Southpa]

Because it's mine, tool.

Thats one of the best answers I've heard in a long time.

[sexybeast]

Glad you liked it. It seemed like a completely dicklike question at the time, and it was. I hope I don't offend anyone, yet I guess if the shoe fits, wear it, but I've met a ton of guitar store dudes that were jagoffs. They lost more money with that attitude than I can remember. It's part of why I decided to build my own guitar.

[Devon Headen]

Good to hear it worked out. In case you were wondering why it happened the way it happened here's a brief explanation. When you tighten a truss rod it counteracts the pull of the strings. So if you have a dead flat neck and tighten it, you will get up bow (warped high in the middle, whether that's upbow or downbow). What happened in your case was that to counteract for the extra tension the heavy gauge strings put on the neck, you tightened the truss rod pretty far foward (or so it sounds). That's where the real danger is, so for not knowing what you were doing you got pretty lucky you didn't strip something out. Then when you switched back to light strings, all that extra tension just dissapeared, but the truss rod was still fighting it. By backing off the truss rod you eased the neck back into the position it is in at a relaxed state. If you get it dead flat and still have room to back the rod off, you can put a little relief in the neck (slightly lower in the middle), which some people prefer.

[sexybeast]

Looks like that's exactly the case alright. I CRANKED on that nut too. Pretty stupid thing to do, but it worked out. Now I need to check the fingerboard with a level, check the frets and see what's doin'.

Thanks for the help, mates, I appreciate it.

[Mickguard]

Because it's mine, tool.

Thats one of the best answers I've heard in a long time.

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I'm still laughing out loud! Excellent!