Question music man steve morse

[nunofrg]

hey guys! just bought yesterday my first real guitar: a Music Man Steve Morse in black, its an outstanding guitar and i couldn´t be happier with it im happy to be part of this family, so decided to register on the forum today.


however i have a question about the guitar and i guess this is the best place in the world to be answered. the playability of the guitar is really amazing but i noticed that the fretboard (i supose its the radius) is more curved down for the low strings and less curved (more flat) for the high strings when i look from the body up the fretboard. From logic i think it makes total sense because it becomes easier to play chords on the lower strings and solo on the high strings, and since this is a music man, every detail to make it easier to play will be already thought by them, however i never ever heard or read about this ever, so i was just checking if this is normal on music mans at all or if maybe its just this model or something, what do you think?


thank you in advance for your help!

best regards

 

[gregmusi]

The feature you are talking about is a compound radius (flatter as you go up the neck), however I didn't think any Music Man guitar has a compound radius (maybe I missed on a special run somewhere)

 

[nunofrg]

no its not compound radius, which is going from curved to flat from the fret 1 to the 22 longitudinally, what im talking about is the width of the fretboard, which goes a little bit deeper down curved in the lower strings than the high strings, which are a little bit higher. so the fretboard "climbs" a bit from left to right from the perspective of the first picture


this is the guitar:




as you see, looking down up the fretboard shows a slight curvature on side..

im sure its something normal, it makes sense to be this way and the playability of the guitar is absolutely amazing, so im almost sure its all okay, im just checking to be total sure of it

 

[xjbebop]

I believe those necks were duplicated from Steve's frankenstrat, so maybe that's the shape it was...?

 

[banjoplayer]

welcome to the forum and congrats to this nice guitar. Standard Morse is my favourite!

I´m not completely sure about your question.
In this pic it looks like the neck humbucker is lower on the treble side. So maybe the tilt of the fretboard (going "deeper" on the bass side) is an optical illusion?

Will check my Morse on this subject tonight but I believe everything is symmetric

 

[fbecir]

Hello and welcome aboard

You are right and you have sharp eyes ! I own my Morse since 2001 and I believe you're right : the bass side of the neck seems to be a little lower than the treble side.

 

[Wahoonc]

Just a thought, but might be an optical illusion caused by the saddle heights and nut. I had a Parker that felt like it had a "pocket" beginning around the ninth fret or so, and when you looked at it you could "see" the slight curve. However, that neck had a 15" non-compound radius. Everyone I pointed it out to could see and "feel" it. It was an optical illusion, though. The eyes were telling the hands to feel the curve, so the hands felt a curve. The difference in string diameters along with the height of the strings at the nut and the saddles created the illusion of a pocket, or curve--it's hard to describe without seeing it, but imagine the asymmetrical neck concept inverted on the fretboard side, just slightly. It felt cool and very comfortable (other than the neck simply being too wide for me). However, when you turned the guitar sideways and looked across the strings and fretboard, you could see that there was no curve or pocket. I verified this by alternately raising and lowering both sides of the bridge--I didn't need to mess with the individual saddles because slight adjustments to the bridge made the illusion go away.

 

[Rachmaninoff]

Just a thought, but might be an optical illusion caused by the saddle heights and nut.

I think the same.

 

[banjoplayer]

I took pics of my morse and calibrated them so that they are absolutely horizontal (even 0.5 degree made me think that there is something not symmetric). To be honest: I can´t tell. I don´t think there is something asymmetric

 

[nunofrg]

thank you all for your help! i have checked again, alligned the neck pickup perfectly horizontal and i must say its an illusion

nothing wrong with, totally normal. i emailed AJ of music man and he said the guitar has to have a perfect 12´ radius and he also said its an ilusion.


by the way, how do you guys have your pickups adjusted on your steve morse guitar? do you put them higher on the bridge, and lower in the neck? how high are them? and do you put the treble side higher than the bass side? what should i have in account besides ears? never had a guitar with so many pickups.


and im kind of afraid of using cleaning products that are not music man on this one, like the dunlop lemon oil/conditioner for the fretboard and stuff, you think its totally ok in using this or should i get the music man cleaning products by all means?



im so caring about this one and afraid of anything wrong or if i brake or ruin something that i start to create doubts about everything... i just want it to be perfect. i think you understand it

thanks again

 

[banjoplayer]

this is the pickup adjustment of the man himself

I like them rather low. They are designed for this and it works very well. They clean up nicely when you roll back the volume. Tommy says he has the neck pickup as high as the bottom end of the Rosewood fretboard.

Others like the pickups higher. They have a lot output so the Steve Morse guitar can be a real rock machine

Lemon oil for the fretboard is fine.

For the oil and wax treatment of the neck there are plenty of threads here... also about Morse´s pickup height... cleaning... everything discussed often. Have fun reading it!

 

[nunofrg]

danke sehr banjoplayer! yeah he has the pickups really low! i personally like the neck pickup high actually because of the volume and actual tone, ill give a try with the others!

 

[nunofrg]

by the way (again) which string gauge do you use for standard E? i personally don´t like too much tension, what should i get?


and where do you rest your guitars, in the stand or in its case? i have mine on the stand but not sure if i should with such an expensive and good guitar..

 

[joe web]

congrats to your new baby!
don't make yourself crazy about cleaning and all the other stuff.....lemon oil on he fretboard is fine, the body take a normal guitr polish, soetime i use guitar polish as well on the neck, just to clean it up.
from time to time use some birchwood wax on the neck, just to get the smooth feeling back.
and once or twice a year do the complete neck cleaning with the true oil as well. if tere is too much dirt on the neck, sand it of first, put true oil on it and after a while put the gunstock wax on.

you can find an official cleaning video on YT

about how to store your guitar....do it as you like it! i have always 2 - 4 of my balls hanging on the wall in my music room and the rest is in its case.

 

[banjoplayer]

danke sehr banjoplayer!

Oh not to me. This wonderful pic is shared to us from Tommy (tommyindelaware), who is a forumite here and Steve Morse´s guitar tech.

I use 10s on my EBMMs and have them hanging on the wall. As Joe said, don´t worry too much about cleaning.
Beyond the video shown above my sourse of knowledge about the oil/wax treatment is this here (post #13 from Spudmurphy): http://forums.ernieball.com/music-m...tock-oil-axis-unfinished-neck.html#post215488

One or two times a year is enough. You can feel it when the back of the neck feels dry and a bit rough

 

[fenderball]

this is the pickup adjustment of the man himself

I like them rather low. They are designed for this and it works very well. They clean up nicely when you roll back the volume. Tommy says he has the neck pickup as high as the bottom end of the Rosewood fretboard.



Others like the pickups higher. They have a lot output so the Steve Morse guitar can be a real rock machine

Lemon oil for the fretboard is fine.

For the oil and wax treatment of the neck there are plenty of threads here... also about Morse´s pickup height... cleaning... everything discussed often. Have fun reading it!

thanks for the pic of morse's pickup height...i have been experimenting with the p'up height on mine...that's cool..thx

 

[banjoplayer]

thanks for the pic of morse's pickup height...i have been experimenting with the p'up height on mine...that's cool..thx

you´re welcome. More about Steve's Pickup heights here: http://forums.ernieball.com/music-man-guitars/45059-smy2d-pickup-height.html#post742039

 

[ksandvik]

I experimented with this setup at a gig this Saturday but after the first set I realized I needed more bite from the guitar so I moved the pickups to half-way close to the strings which seems to be my optimal position just now. It's easy to adjust and balance the pickups on a Y2D so yo could nurture all kinds of sounds by experimentation with the pickup heights.

 

[Fontanz]

I own 3 Morses, built in 98, 03 amd 07. I adjusted my pickups this way:

humbuckers lower than the factory would do, and the neck humbucker determines how low (not too much down in order to get enough volume and gain, but with this precondition as low as possible in order to get enough space to avoid pick contact while playing)

single coils pretty much down low in order to get gain reduction (like it was meant by Steve) AND to get space for the pick, even more important here because the single coils are in the middle of the pickups where the pick gets down more often

To me this way the pus give their best sound and it also fits perfect whith my picking style which includes a lot of alternate picking.

 

[banjoplayer]

I own 3 Morses, built in 98, 03 amd 07. I adjusted my pickups this way:

humbuckers lower than the factory would do, and the neck humbucker determines how low (not too much down in order to get enough volume and gain, but with this precondition as low as possible in order to get enough space to avoid pick contact while playing)

single coils pretty much down low in order to get gain reduction (like it was meant by Steve) AND to get space for the pick, even more important here because the single coils are in the middle of the pickups where the pick gets down more often

To me this way the pus give their best sound and it also fits perfect whith my picking style which includes a lot of alternate picking.

This is pretty much the same setup as I have on my Morse. Could not describe it better