Question Help with MM Steve Morse guitar, fret and possible nek issue, want to fix in LA

[Nathan_Scott]

Looking for some advice here.

I bought a MM Steve Morse guitar (fixed bridge) 2nd hand through ebay a couple of years ago. Condition was/is great, sounds great, love the guitar mostly. Main issue described by seller and was true was/is some uneven fret wear (meaning not an all frets). Mainly around top 3 strings, guy was a string bender, as am I (was/is worst around 8th fret and 15th fret etc). Fret wear just means slightly flattened top of frets. Nothing extreme and I do not think this alone is the cause of my issues, but it may be.

I have tried many many times to adjust the truss rod and bridge action to get the setup I like (tried more/less neck relief, currently best is minimal relief for me, just enough so the lower frets do not buzz), but I can never get it quite there without the top couple of strings fretting out on bends, especially on certain worn frets, but the top E seems to do it on most high frets, even when the action is quite high.

The other possible issue I may have is with the neck (not sure here, but other cheaper ibanez guitars I have adjusted do not seems to have this) is that when I do adjust the truss rod, I notice that the lower E side of the neck reliefs more than the top E side of the neck (low I mean lower register sonically) => i.e. if I get the top E side effectively straight, the lower E side still has some relief, if I want a touch of relief in the top E side, the bottom E side has more relief (creating a higher action for the bottom strings that I do not like so much). Is this meant to be like this for MM guitars or is this an anomaly? Yes I have to push on the middle of the neck after truss rod adjustment sometimes to get it to adjust (kind of clicks).

To me it seems as if the guitar would work better if I could increase the saddle height of the 1st and 2nd strings, especially the first, I do not have any idea of how to do this, the saddle seems to not want to come off. Also possibly getting the neck refretted. If the neck has some weird warp as I described, well, I do not think there is much that can be done on that, guitar is well out of warranty anyway and I do not even know if there is a problem.

So, the last part is, I live mostly in Indonesia (forget about getting any work done here), but I am traveling to Mexico this Friday and I have to spend a night in Los Angeles on my way through. So I was thinking this was a good opportunity to get someone skilled at fixing this kind of crap to sort it out (I'll leave it with them for 6 months) and pick it up on my way back. Do not want to spend more than 2-300 bucks either.

Any advice, recommendations on people to see in LA, I would drop it off this Saturday I reckon.

Thanks in advance for any help and the time taken to read through this.

 

[Tollywood]

Hello,

Perhaps you could have ebmm refret it for you and check out the truss rod? That's in your price range, but I don't know if they ship to Indonesia. You could call c.s. and ask them.

 

[fbecir]

Hello and welcome

When you are talking about fretwear, you mean something like this :

Normally, it should not cause you any problem (these photos were taken a few years ago, and now it's worst , my Morse is my #1 guitar and it plays like a dream).

In order to adjust the 1st and 2nd string, you have to turn a bit one of the bridge wheel :

The problem I had with my Morse was a "neck shift" (I'm not sure that it's the good term). The neck was not perfectly aligned with the body (I do not know the cause). Thus I had to remove the neck and put it back :

Not a big deal in fact : you just remove the 5 screws and you put them back carefully.

I don't if my post is helpful. The best you can do is to contact CS and you can also post some pictures.

Good luck

 

[beej]

What Tollie said- have EBMM look at it. They're going to do a better job with the neck & frets than any shop, and they'll probably be less expensive as well. From LA, you could have it shipped to SLO (not too far).

Drop the customer service guys a line and get their two cents.

 

[Jack FFR1846]

Boy....lots of things could cause the issue. The wear on the frets, making an upper fret become relatively higher will cause the buzzing. If the nut is too high, you'll get buzzing even at high action. Incorrect relief can result in buzzing. You can have the frets leveled and crowned. It would be less expensive than a refret, but if you're not in the US, getting MM to refret might be a more prudent move. Ship (or drop off) the guitar to MM customer service. I've had a refret quoted and they are very reasonable. Also tell them what your concern is with the neck. A new neck would be more expensive than the $300 you're wanting to limit yourself to, but not much more.

 

[Nathan_Scott]

Ya thanks all, agreed, could be so many things. I have contacted MM and will most likely bring it and ship locally to them.

To Fbecir, my fret wear is nowhere near as bad as yours, also the nut is also different to yours.

 

[fbecir]

Ya thanks all, agreed, could be so many things. I have contacted MM and will most likely bring it and ship locally to them.

To Fbecir, my fret wear is nowhere near as bad as yours, also the nut is also different to yours.

I think you have a compensated nut (my Morse is from 2001, and MusicMan started to put compensated nut in 2005 or 2006).

 

[paranoid70]

Nathan. Sending it to EB would probably be your best bet... but if you want to meet up with a local luthier in the LA area (Norwalk) who could probably do a one day turn around PM me. This guy did a great job on a fret leveling for my Silhouette Special as well as other jobs I have had him do... very reasonable cost as well.

 

[kbaim]

If youre in the san fernando valley area, a GREAT guitar tech is eric at erics guitars 818-780-7191. He's off the 405 and roscoe bl. And he works on MM guitars. Done a bunch of my stuff back in the day. He's always swamped but for an upcharge he will turn around same day (at least he used to for me).

But the factory guys are second to none.
Good luck

 

[kbaim]

Just reread your post. Not sure Eric would want to hang on to an instrument for 6 months. Tough situation. Good luck