Help! Help My JP BFR is affected by climate changes...?

[Olert_83]

I live in southern Norway and have been on vacation in northern Norway for the last three weeks, bringing my MM JP BFR along with me. I sent the guitar in it's factory hard case on the plane (as special care luggage). I noticed that the action had changed and was slightly higher when I arrived in the north, and I immediately thought that the climate, or the temperature during the flight was the cause of this (approx three hour flight). I expected the guitar to "adapt" to the new climate during the stay (which it doesn't...?). Now, over the last three weeks, I have adjusted the truss rod regularly (tightened it) until it is so tight that I don't have the balls to tighten it even more. The action is still too high, and I can't seem to get it down. I have checked, and compared, the humidity conditions both where I came from and where I am now, and they seem to be pretty much the same (60-70% humidity). I keep the guitar in the case all the time when I don't play. I have suspected something might have happened during the flight, but there were no visual damages whatsoever (scratches, cracks etc..) to the guitar when I checked it right after the flight. Also, I always keep the guitar on a warm place (20-25 C) when I store it. Does anyone have an opinion on this matter?

Thanks, Ole

 

[GHWelles]

This sounds like a setup issue for a tech

 

[beej]

One thing you can try is to help the neck settle again by pulling back slightly on the headstock (towards the back of the guitar), so as to encourage the neck to straighten. I usually do this after a truss rod tweak, try to help the neck go to where it's supposed to be. (If it's been like this for a few weeks that probably won't make much difference though.)

Probably a good idea to contact the customer support folks and see what they say.

 

[straycat113]

I must say that this one is a bit baffling. Everything was fine you say until you took the flight, so obviously something happened during that period. Personally I do not think it was the flight or change in conditions as the guitar should of adapted already, I would not be shocked that a handler may of flung your case knocking the neck out of wack. It does not seem that it is going to change on its own so I agree with beej, call CS and get a good tech to look at it.

 

[Olert_83]

Thanks alot guys! Beej, I've tried pulling the neck gently back into position. I've loosened the strings a bit, and have tightened the truss rod a bit more (still not too tight). Now I've put the guitar strings down with the headstock resting on a pillow to give it a little longlasting backwards pressure. I'll try this procedure a bit longer to see if the neck is slowly following in the right direction. I've also thought about the possibility that a handler could have messed it up, which probably would be a difficult thing for me to prove since I didn't complain right away (I'll be more aware of this in the future). One other reason could be that I didn't loosen the strings before the flight so they got tightened and the neck gave after because of the contraction of the strings...? Can't go to a tech anyway until I'm back home next week. But yeah, I will call CS and hear their opinion.

Thanks again guys!