Neck adjustment

Hi all.

I have a electric guitar with a bold on neck, the neck was not seated right so i took it apart and seated it level. i now do not have enough adjustment. and the strings are to high. I need to pack the neck out a few mm's to raise it, it was thinking a metal plate, but now im thinking will this affect sound? It would be easy for me to make a metal plate to place between the neck and body joint... or shound i be using hard wood. what is the best material for this?

Thanks.

have you considered shimming with playing cards? Thats what i did with my neck.

Hey guitarra07,
It sounds like you may need to adjust the truss rod too, I recently done a setup on a cheap electric, and had to turn the truss rod to lower the action on it. You can try a shim, but you might want to try the truss rod first. I can give you more info if you want to go that way, just let me know.

Originally Posted by: guitarra07Hi all.

I have a electric guitar with a bold on neck, the neck was not seated right so i took it apart and seated it level. i now do not have enough adjustment. and the strings are to high. I need to pack the neck out a few mm's to raise it, it was thinking a metal plate, but now im thinking will this affect sound? It would be easy for me to make a metal plate to place between the neck and body joint... or shound i be using hard wood. what is the best material for this?

Thanks.

What kind of guitar is it? When you say the neck was not seated right, do you mean crooked (as in looking straight down on it and it is not in line with the bridge), or not level with the body (as in looking from side on, it bends backward compared to the body being level)? Some models are designed to have a certain degree of back-angle on the neck (not to be confused with relief).

Thanks.

The guitar is a epoch, the metal plate for the bolts is stampped gibson bauldwin. There was a angle on the neck to body. the neck was pointing down/in so the strings would be toutching the higher frets. when playing down the neck. i took the neck off and seated it level with the body. whoever built it had packed the back end out with wood.

I hav the truss rod (i take it thats the part where the strings go in?) turned all the way down, so i cannot lower the action from there.

I want to update to a eppiphone sg or the les paul copy in the future but for now i have to get the best out of what i got until cash comes my way...

It holds tune well, and the neck is straight. i just need to lower the strings/action

Any info you guys have would be great, thanks for the replies...

Did a quick Google and found this thread http://www.thefret.net/showthread.php?t=1842 where a guy fixed his own Epoch. Sounded pretty similar to your problem.

I'm gathering there should be some actual angle. To figure what that is, you measure the height of the bridge, length of the neck and so on. Basically create a full scale drawing and work it out. It's not as hard as it sounds. here's a link http://www.tundraman.com/Guitars/NeckAngle/Index.cfm

Since you have already filled it in, you could easily rout it back out to something more accurate than it was.

However, it might not be worth it if you are upgrading (or you may not have a router) and shimming might be the simplest way to go. I have heard of all kinds of things beings used successfully. Definitely playing cards as Rick mentioned, also plastic, wood, brass, and even sandpaper.

Good luck with it!

Thanks razbo,
i was gettin the problem in fig 4 on the second link you posted. ive done sum research, the neck is level so dont need to adjust truss rod. Im gona raise the bridge up a few turns so i have a bit of downward adjustment. Then place a shime about 1.5 - 2mm in between the neck and body, im gona try and find sum hard wood for this. Re string it and lower the bridge until it feels and plays good with no fret buzz.

Prob take the day monday to sort it and try set it up...

Im new to guitar set up, so going to learn it on this guitar.

I hav spent tonight setting this guitar up, im so pleased with how its turned out and how it is playing now. it would not of being possible without some of this advise.

I loosend the steel plate screws, prised the neck from the body just enough to slide in some 5mm hardboard in screwed it back down and tested it. The height was good after sum messing about. This is when i found out that i did need sum slight neck angle. I removed the neck from body leaving the strings on, and made a plate from the hard board to fit exact, with holes for the screws. For the neck angle i used a zip/cable tie which is about 1mm or so, screwed it back up and tuned it. I had fret buzz so had to raise the bride up which is good.

I thought i would check the truss rod allen key as the neck was slightly out, when i removed the plate the allen bolt was totaly loose and rattleing! always wondered what the noise was! needed a fair few turns to get it straight.

It really is great now, thanks again for the advice, the only problem i hav now is one of the screws wont tighten down good, so may take it out fill hole with glue and screw back in?

|I need to upgrade guitars soon as this guitar does not have the tune o matic bridge so i cant tune the 12th fret to open string, was thinking of fitting one but am just gonna buy epiphone when i got spare cash.

David...

Awesome! It's great when a plan comes together!

As far as that loose screw, I've read a few suggestions on this. One is simply to glue in a sliver or 2 of wood and that's that.

My approach (and I have to do this on a parted "telecaster" I am finishing) would be to properly fill in the hole with dowel of the correct size and redrill it.

There is some contention that the grain of the dowel will run the wrong way compared to the neck and not be as strong. However, I don't own a machine to make plugs, so that's the way it will be for me. Besides, I have never had any problem with dowels in other types of wood projects.

Glad to hear it worked out for you so far!