Straight Neck

[tag0519]

Hello All,

How could I determine if the neck on an acoustic is straight? Could i lay a straight-edge along the frets and if all the frets are touching the straight-edge then I could assume the neck is straight?

Thanks in advance ...
-Tom

[jgillard]

I would just follow this method:

http://www.taylorguitars.com/global/...adjustment.pdf

[tag0519]

Originally Posted by jgillard

I would just follow this method:

http://www.taylorguitars.com/global/...adjustment.pdf

That's Perfect!!!... Thank you

[murrmac123]

It all kind of depends on what you mean by "straight", and why you want the neck to be "straight" in the first place.

The most usual reason for wanting to get the neck "straight" is so that the frets can be dressed (ie the tops of the frets brought into the same plane) with the lowest amount of material removal.

Stew-Mac sell a notched straight-edge for this purpose (as do I also ) but my take on the matter is that trying to match an adjustable piece of wood (which is what a guitar neck with a trussrod is) to a continuous machined straight edge is a waste of time.

You are far better off using three accurate gauge blocks, each of identical thickness, and locating one behind the first fret, one behind the fifteenth, and one in front of the seventh. You can then adjust the truss rod until all three gauge blocks touch the straight edge. At this point, the neck can be said to be "straight" and fret dressing can go ahead with the assurance that you have minimized the amount of material removal which will be required.

After you have dressed, and crowned, the frets, then you can dial in the amount of relief required.

The "straightness " of a neck under truss rod tension is actually quite an interesting ,( and complicated ) area of physics. The bottom line is that it is actually impossible to adjust a column which is under external tension (ie from string tension) into straightness by trying to compensate with an internal trussrod. The end result is inevitably an S- shaped curve. This was proven by one of the most eminent mathematicians of all time, Leonard Euler, over two centuries ago.

Fortunately, the tolerances involved in a guitar neck are such that we are able to overcome the problem by judicious sanding both of fretboard and of frets.

[Barry Daniels]

Don't need to make it complicated. Just put a straight edge on top the frets.