Action on my Rainsong has Increased

[gfa]

Hello carbon folks, I have not been in this sub in a while. I have a Rainsong with the NS2 neck, 12 fret version, about 10 years old. I just noticed that the action on the upper frets has become very high. What's the likely cause of that, and the remedy? I haven't changed string gauges or anything else, was surprised to see it. TIA

[Markcarl]

Originally Posted by gfa

Hello carbon folks, I have not been in this sub in a while. I have a Rainsong with the NS2 neck, 12 fret version, about 10 years old. I just noticed that the action on the upper frets has become very high. What's the likely cause of that, and the remedy? I haven't changed string gauges or anything else, was surprised to see it. TIA

You might want to call Rainsong customer support (Dave) and ask him. The NS neck on your guitar has a truss rod and that may need to be adjusted. I am not knowledgeable about guitar repairs / maintenance and don’t know why the action would change like that.

[KevinH]

That's interesting. Has anything else changed? Is there noticeably more relief in the neck than before? If you sight down the neck (better, lay a straight edge on the frets) does it look like the top of the frets lands at about the top of the bridge?

I hadn't heard of CF guitars needing neck resets. But a quick search raised a couple of cases where people with Rainsongs (not singling them out, that's just what I searched for) had to get a neck reset.

[casualmusic]

My CA Cargo started to buzz near the nut after a few years. Traced it to low nut slots. Confirmed when shimming with tiny bits of guitar string in the slots under the strings stopped the buzzing. Will ask a guitar tech about filling slots or raising/replacing the nut. Is nut aging and shrinking a thing?

[casualmusic]

Oops. Sorry my Cargo issue is the opposite of yours.


RainSong bolts and glues the necks. Can you check tightness of the bolts?

Cheers.

[gfa]

Eyeballing the neck, it looked to have a little bit of a bow. I gave the truss rod a wee (about 1/3) turn, will see how that settles in. Thanks to all for the suggestions.

[casualmusic]

Originally Posted by casualmusic

RainSong bolts and glues the necks. Can you check tightness of the bolts?

I should have said that the neck bolts are reached through the sound hole.

[mountainmaster]

Originally Posted by gfa

Eyeballing the neck, it looked to have a little bit of a bow. I gave the truss rod a wee (about 1/3) turn, will see how that settles in. Thanks to all for the suggestions.

Carbon fiber generally does not need time to settle in after a truss rod turn. The change should be instant. I understand one wants to be careful though.

[55tele]

Several years ago I had my Black Ice refretted with Stainless frets and when I initially got it back the neck had very little relief......

Last month I started playing it again and noticed the action had gone up quite a bit...almost 1/64" on both treble and bass sides. I was able to get the neck down back with truss rod adjustment almost flat to the original relief and the action came right back down....

I keep my acoustics at a pretty standard 6/64" bass / 4/64" treble measured at the 12th fret...hope this helps...sounds like a truss rod adjustment will get you back.....

I wondered what caused my issue and my best guess is that my refret guy must have loosened the rod to get the backbow out before reftetting and the subsequent adjustment after refretting and setup wasn't as much as the original truss rod setting, and that made her bow a little over time...

[Kray Van Kirk]

I have a CF 12-string and was surprised to find that experimenting with heavier gauge strings caused it to need a truss rod adjustment (and also halted said experimentation and back to light gauge, tho' I could have tuned it one step lower).

[Marshall]

Originally Posted by gfa

Eyeballing the neck, it looked to have a little bit of a bow. I gave the truss rod a wee (about 1/3) turn, will see how that settles in. Thanks to all for the suggestions.

How'd that work out?

[Marshall]

I have a new used RainSong with NS2 neck. I was capoing up high and noticed some string buzz. I tweaked the truss rod 1/4 turn. Didn't help. Then I came to realize the fretboard has a 20" radius. My other guitars and my capos all are based on the standard 16" fingerboard radius. it was the G string that was having problems. When I figured out it was a radius thing, I reset the truss rod to where it was before and just have to clamp down tight my capos to keep the middle strings from buzzing when open chords are played.

Mild irritation there on my part. But the instrument is performing quite great otherwise.

[steelvibe]

Originally Posted by Marshall

Then I came to realize the fretboard has a 20" radius. My other guitars and my capos all are based on the standard 16" fingerboard radius. it was the G string that was having problems…

Yes! For me it was both the D and G on the Shorty I once had. I couldn’t get used to the nearly classical style radius compounded by the beefy neck profile. Shame too because I loved that guitar otherwise. And good luck finding a Shubb (my favorite) that will work on the N2.

[Marshall]

The neck is what we interact with. Most of us go on oblivious to the subtle changes that different manufacturers make. But there will always be one that is "home"; just feels right. Then we wonder what the differences are and get educated. Finally we (me!) become woke enough to only want what we want.

[Melt in the Sun]

Shubbs are pretty easy and forgiving to bend...