Neck hump anything to be concerned about?

[Larry Mal]

Hi all! I got a 2017 Gibson J-35, I'm having some trouble getting it to set up properly, and I discovered this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yPJ3Ve9CQg

The guitar does seem to have been stored in very dry conditions, and the frets can be felt on the sides of the neck. I oiled the fingerboard and it drank that right up.

So I have it under humidification, and I'll give it some time. I can return it, I'd rather not. Does this seem like a disaster, am I panicking, is this common?

I haven't seen it before but my guitars stay in the cases and I keep my place and instruments under humidity, so maybe I would not have.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

[charles Tauber]

What setup problems are you having?

Does it buzz when played at frets at and above the neck joint?

What you seem to be demonstrating is the fingerboard has two planes, one up to the neck joint and one from neck joint to soundhole. It might be that this is what is called “fall away”, intentionally built into the instrument. Whether you want that or not is a separate issue.

[redir]

It's a good idea to nip those fret ends before you re-humidify the guitar. That way when the wood swells up back to normal they will be tucked away nicely.

[Ned Milburn]

Standard steel string guitar construction quite often develops a hump at the joining fret and subsequent fret or two.

Best correction is remedial fretwork.

Fretboard fall-away (as Charles mentions) is a different thing, but is often seen at the same time as a hump.

The reason for humps developing is most likely due to different shrinkage directions and rates of the various pieces of wood comprising the neck, heel, and body joints.

Fretboard fall-away can often be misdiagnosed as a hump. But to clarify, a hump is when the fret at the join and subsequent one or two frets are HIGHER THAN THE FRET PLANE from the lower portion of the neck onwards...

If you have fall away only, most likely no fret work is necessary. If there is a hump, remedial fretwork can be a god-send.

Got it...??

[Larry Mal]

Hmm. Thanks for the thoughts, this is a new one to me, none of my other guitars have had a hump of this kind nor a fall away- I checked them all to see if it was just something that I hadn't noticed before.

The setup may not be a problem, I can get it to ring true on the strings although with the action higher than I like. I took the saddle down a little bit but it's still higher than I want.

Not sure what I'll do here. I guess I'll let it humidify, see how I like it over the weekend. I'm not going to do any fretwork on it, it's still within the return window and if I think this will cost me money to make it play properly I won't spend it, I'll just return it and hope for the best out of the next one.

I suppose I could get it to a technician, but maybe I'm just leery since Gibson's quality control can be hit or miss (my Dove bears that out), and I'm not going to throw good money after bad and all that. I just got the guitar and while I like it, and would like to keep it, I'm hardly going to put hundreds of dollars into a neck reset or whatever.

At this point I'd even take advice as to what you might do personally if this was your purchase. I appreciate the thoughts and the advice.