If You Work On Your Own Guitars...

[TRU]

If you work on your own guitars:
1) How do you check neck relief?
2) What are your parameters for deicing of truss needs adjustment?
3) If the gauge of my strings are different from yours should our processes be different?
4) Would you agree: Once saddle and nut height are set up professionally, wood may change and truss adjustments may be the necessary tweak, ie. string buzz?

[Silly Moustache]

Originally Posted by TRU

If you work on your own guitars:
1) How do you check neck relief?
2) What are your parameters for deicing of truss needs adjustment?
3) If the gauge of my strings are different from yours should our processes be different?
4) Would you agree: Once saddle and nut height are set up professionally, wood may change and truss adjustments may be the necessary tweak, ie. string buzz?

1. spark plug gap gauge
2. If there is too much of a bow around the 5-7th, (high RH)or if the strings are a tad buzzy (low RH)
3. no.
4. Yes. A frequent 1/8" of a turn one way or t'other depending on the season.

[TRU]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

1. spark plug gap gauge
2. If there is too much of a bow around the 5-7th, (high RH)or if the strings are a tad buzzy (low RH)
3. no.
4. Yes. A frequent 1/8" of a turn one way or t'other depending on the season.

1) .008"/20mm ???
2) RH=turn to right (more relief) ???

[Mirosh]

Originally Posted by TRU

1) .008"/20mm ???
2) RH=turn to right (more relief) ???

1. .008" = 0.20mm. Opinions vary, but that's right in the ballpark for many.
2. Turn to right (clockwise) for less relief.

[cliff_the_stiff]

check out this detailed answer pulled from a recent post by Charles Tauber
https://www.charlestauber.com/luthie...1-Sept2018.pdf

[charles Tauber]

Originally Posted by TRU

4) Would you agree: Once saddle and nut height are set up professionally, wood may change and truss adjustments may be the necessary tweak, ie. string buzz?

No.

While many players do that, that isn't necessarily the best approach. The truss rod is there for one and only one purpose: to alter the curvature of the neck.

Wood usually "changes", short term, due to humidity fluctuations: it expands when humidity goes up and shrinks when humidity goes down. Rarely does this seasonal change alter the shape of the thick, wide neck.

What the seasonal change does often do is to change the arch of the thin, wide guitar top. As the guitar top attempts to expand, but can't since its edges are constrained, the top arches more, taking the bridge and strings with it, raising the action. As the guitar top attempts to shrink, but can't since its edges are constrained, the top arches less, taking the bridge and strings with it, lowering the action. This has nothing to do with the curvature of the neck. Hence, adjustment of the truss rod is not the best approach to countering it. (The best approach is to eliminate the changes in humidity. If that is not practical, then, as many people do, have one shorter saddle for summer and one taller saddle for winter.)

On strings that are too low, adding more relief to the neck, increases the string height for a portion of the neck. On strings that are too high, reducing the neck relief, decreases the string height for a portion of the neck. The ideal action is one in which the strings are as parallel to the surface of the frets as possible, giving you as uniform as possible a string height along the entire fretboard, while allowing for the amplitude of the vibrating string. Too much neck relief or too much back bow don't achieve that.

Once properly set, unless one changes string tensions, the truss rod very rarely requires adjustment - as in once in the course of years. As a guitar ages, under prolonged string tension, cold creep of the neck can occur, causing the neck to bow. When that occurs, adjustment of the truss rod is appropriate. For guitars that are made without adjustable truss rods, the reinforcement of the neck is intended to prevent cold creep so that, in theory, the neck never needs adjustment of its curvature.

Regardless, many players will continue to make seasonal adjustments to their adjustable truss rods largely because they can and because it solves their immediate problem at the expense of other aspects of playability.

[JayBee1404]

Originally Posted by TRU

If you work on your own guitars:
1) How do you check neck relief?

With the strings at tension (i.e. in ‘normal’ tuning), put a capo on at the first fret, hold down the E string at the fret where the neck joins the body, and use automotive feeler-gauges to measure the gap between the top of the 7th fret and the underneath of the string.

2) What are your parameters for deicing of truss needs adjustment?

Using Light-gauge strings (12-54), I shoot for relief of ~0.006”. If it measures more or less than this, a truss-rod adjustment may be appropriate. But whether you need more or less depends very much on your playing style and the gauge of strings you use. For instance, a heavy-hitting strummer will likely need more relief than a light-touch finger-picker in order to avoid fret-buzz.

3) If the gauge of my strings are different from yours should our processes be different?

No. String gauge is irrelevant to the process of measuring relief.

4) Would you agree: Once saddle and nut height are set up professionally, wood may change and truss adjustments may be the necessary tweak, ie. string buzz?

No. Charles Tauber has set out the reasons perfectly.

The usual disclaimers apply......IMHO, YMMV etc.

[Silly Moustache]

Originally Posted by TRU

1) .008"/20mm ???
2) RH=turn to right (more relief) ???

RH =- Relative humidity.
tighten truss rod , usually "righty tighty" and "lefty-loosey"

[Victory Pete]

I keep my necks very straight so I check all the time. I simply fret string at 1st fret and then any fret that's around the heel and then click the string down on the fret and listen for the sound. I can tell when I have just a tiny bit of relief.

[TRU]

Originally Posted by charles Tauber

No.

While many players do that, that isn't necessarily the best approach. The truss rod is there for one and only one purpose: to alter the curvature of the neck.

Wood usually "changes", short term, due to humidity fluctuations: it expands when humidity goes up and shrinks when humidity goes down. Rarely does this seasonal change alter the shape of the thick, wide neck.

What the seasonal change does often do is to change the arch of the thin, wide guitar top. As the guitar top attempts to expand, but can't since its edges are constrained, the top arches more, taking the bridge and strings with it, raising the action. As the guitar top attempts to shrink, but can't since its edges are constrained, the top arches less, taking the bridge and strings with it, lowering the action. This has nothing to do with the curvature of the neck. Hence, adjustment of the truss rod is not the best approach to countering it. (The best approach is to eliminate the changes in humidity. If that is not practical, then, as many people do, have one shorter saddle for summer and one taller saddle for winter.)

On strings that are too low, adding more relief to the neck, increases the string height for a portion of the neck. On strings that are too high, reducing the neck relief, decreases the string height for a portion of the neck. The ideal action is one in which the strings are as parallel to the surface of the frets as possible, giving you as uniform as possible a string height along the entire fretboard, while allowing for the amplitude of the vibrating string. Too much neck relief or too much back bow don't achieve that.

Once properly set, unless one changes string tensions, the truss rod very rarely requires adjustment - as in once in the course of years. As a guitar ages, under prolonged string tension, cold creep of the neck can occur, causing the neck to bow. When that occurs, adjustment of the truss rod is appropriate. For guitars that are made without adjustable truss rods, the reinforcement of the neck is intended to prevent cold creep so that, in theory, the neck never needs adjustment of its curvature.

Regardless, many players will continue to make seasonal adjustments to their adjustable truss rods largely because they can and because it solves their immediate problem at the expense of other aspects of playability.

Excellent. Super post. Thank you!

[SonofA]

1 eyeball from nut towards bridge
2 double action truss rod
3 double action truss rod
4 you can suggest a humidifier for all non lam guitars, but everyone thinks they know better & has a wood stove
...75$ an HR
These are my sarcastic but honest replies