Guitar Gear Forum

Is there a specific guideline that you follow when you set up your guitar? Do you like the neck to be dead on straight, or with a little of relief? How do you like your action?

For most of my guitars, my necks have a very bow to them. So slight, they even appear dead on straight. Luckily, I've never had to adjust my truss rod on any of my guitars, but if I would, I would make the neck dead flat to see if it would help with playability.

As far as action, I use the US dime method. I slide the dime underneath the strings at the 12 fret and lower (or raise for that matter) to when the height matches the thickness of the dime. I've always had great low action with this method, but I am pondering if I should go even lower.

As far as neck goes.... you got it right (though you used the wrong term. Bow is the neck bending back. Relief is what you want). You want as straight as possible, which usually means a very very very very slight amount of relief. Some people prefer to have more visual relief and that is fine too. It basically is a change in feel ands not necessarily function.... to a point.

I have been building and fixing guitars for many years now. I have gotten in a few arguments over it from people who once read an old Dan Erlewine book that says visible relief is the only way to go. However, I can say from experience, that 100% of the time... the straighter a neck is, the better it is to set up for any action. I can only offer what i have experienced in the high hundreds of guitars I have worked on or built. And i wont argue about it

As far as action goes, for clients, i adjust when they are present to their liking. For me, I adjust till it feels right. Guitar PLAYING should never be about measurements. It should be about what feels right.

I use a straight edge and measure the bow with feeler gauges at the 7th fret. I like .008" but .010" Is acceptable. As far as the action height goes I set it to where I don't have fret buzz. I play with a VERY hard hand so mine are usually around 4-4.5/64" on the low E and maybe 3/64" on the high E at the 12th fret. It all depends how it feels. I like to get under the string above when I bend so I don't get that mushy multiple string bending stuff.

Those are rules of thumb but I've been known to set up guitars completely by eye and feel. LOL

Cool! Thanks guys! Much appreciated.