Acoustic Neck Adjustment

[JWR]

Hello Friends,

I have an issue with several guitars I am working on at the moment, no doubt the weather might be contributing to this problem. However, one of my customers brought in a Washburn electric acoustic cutaway with fret buzz on the 12th fret.

Assessing the neck, it appeared to be straight, absolute minimal backbow. On loosining the neck (Bottom adjustment not headstock), the rod is at it's loosest. The neck however, still has no true visible change in the natural backbow and fret buzz is still happening around the 12th fret.

I shimmed the saddle slightly hopefully to resolve the issue. I have found on several guitars I have worked on that loosening the truss rod all the way down does not always bring the natural backbow back in place.

Can you help me with his issue?

Thanks!

James.

[ryanb]

That's not a particularly unusual problem. There are a lot of potential approaches ... what works depends a lot on the individual situation. Some things you could try:

1) Just use heavier strings.

2) Level it out of the frets if it isn't that much.

3) Level it out of the fretboard and refret.

4) Do a partial (or full) refret with smaller fret tangs (less fret compression).

5) Heat press the neck in a neck jig to "slip" the neck-fretboard joint slightly and change the shape some.

6) Change the environment (temperature, humidity) and see if it comes back on its own (or maybe gets worse).

etc ...

[JWR]

Many thanks for the quick response,

I have put the guitar in our temperature controlled room overnight to see if the neck settles, and yes, heavier strings hopefully will pull the neck into better alignment.

If not, I'll check out your other suggestions.

Thanks again,

JWR

That's not a particularly unusual problem. There are a lot of potential approaches ... what works depends a lot on the individual situation. Some things you could try:

1) Just use heavier strings.

2) Level it out of the frets if it isn't that much.

3) Level it out of the fretboard and refret.

4) Do a partial (or full) refret with smaller fret tangs (less fret compression).

5) Heat press the neck in a neck jig to "slip" the neck-fretboard joint slightly and change the shape some.

6) Change the environment (temperature, humidity) and see if it comes back on its own (or maybe gets worse).

etc ...