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John Myung Bongo 4

JP's action to be set on a GC guitar before I buy...

Highway Star

Highway Star

Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2013
Messages
14
Hi All!

I understand this topic has been beat to death... Sorry for the redundancy.

GC has a JP6 BFR "Solar Burst" for sale that I am looking at. Right now the action of the guitar is to high for my liking.

In a Youtube video at (15:50), John's tech "Maddi" talks about adjusting the neck flat and setting the strings to .040 at the twelfth fret and follow the radius of the neck.

Would you agree that this is a good starting point for me to have GC adjust the guitar to for a fair comparison of its capabilities?

I know, I know that everyone should have their guitar set to their liking... My favorite Les Paul is set to this height right now and it feels nice and does not buzz enough to concern me when being played live.

Your thoughts would be great to hear!
 
Check the neck relief first. The neck may simply have reacted to changes in temperature and humidity since it left the factory. When neck relief changes, action changes a little too. (That's they joy of the Music Man truss rod adjustment - so easy to make changes). 0.040" is very, very low, probably lower than factory spec and that may not work for most people (totally flat neck may not either). So they may not want to mess with it. If GC are willing to set up this guitar for you, by all means ask them to do so. Of course, if you can do that low action on your LP and it works for you, you'll have no problem with this one either.

As an aside and for future reference, check out the FAQ pages on the Music Man website for setup info too.
 
+ 1 regarding Dr. Kev's response. If this is your first time with an EBMM, you'll learn a lot here. In all likelihood, you will probably end up not trusting any one else with your set ups. I never messed with any of this until I bought my first Ball. Now I'm obsessed with constant tweaking. Stewart McDonald kit is awesome.
 
Thanks for the advice DrKev and Ozzy!

I am located in Reno Nevada and our humidity here can get low and can effect all musical instruments. Hopefully the GC has humidifiers going... My Les Paul needs fret work and it's accuracy is probable not as good as the MMJP guitar is. The workmanship on the JP is excellent by the way!

I will talk with GC and see what they are or aren't willing to do.

I have seen the FAQ pages but that confuses me with what Maddi was saying about JP's setup, and I have read the other posts about how JP has "created" the specs that MM uses to set their guitars up by.

The endless pursuit of the perfect low action without fret noise and clear ringing strings continues... Thanks for your responses guys! It has helped.
 
Are you sure that's a solar burst? I'm not sure that we've shipped one yet...
 
You know A.J. I'm not really sure which color it is... When I look at the MM webpages the color does not seem to match what color I remember it being. I will be going there shortly and will report back.

Thanks for the link Lou! When I was a kid the other guitarist in my band had an Ibanez SG, maple neck and body that played like butter. It had to be below .040 and it was the best/fastest Guitar I have ever played. Now that was thirty years ago. It is probable a fence post now!
 
I do my own setups on all my guitars (about a dozen) and also do my own fret levels. 0.04" is insanely low. That's 2.5/64 for those of us who work in 1/64" increments. I can see 0.047" (3/64") on a perfectly level set of frets. My old Axis was just about 3/64 and I thought that was insanely low.

Lou posted the EBMM page and their numbers are much higher and about what I tend to do. I might go a bit higher as I tend to do a lot of bends.
 
I would go to .040 if you can on the jp. With a really straight neck I can get it lower on some of my guitars, but it's tough. Even at .040 you may have to jump it back up, but I think the JP can handle it. As I'm sure you know it's all about pick control. The tech should know playability wise whether he has gone to low at the .040.

edit: forgot to mention my guitar that has really really low action I have the neck set dead straight and I put "fall away" on it. Not sure if musicman does this, but I would suspect they do. I think that helps the low action. Anyways, just trying to sound knowledgeable and hopefully add some insight :)
 
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It is an Island Burst. You got that one right Glen! It is in the back of my car... I'm going to be a little distracted tonight! I will post a picture before I get finger prints all over it.

Thanks for all of the advice guys. Like you said Jack I plan on playing around with it. Each guitar is different and until I mess with it who knows. GC did adjust the truss rod and got it where it should be. All and all it plays really nice. It now just needs some playing then tweaking. Nice guitar!

jvh: "Fall Away"... As Brad Pitt said in Mr. and Mrs. Smith: huh... I just read about fall away and I will continue learning more about that since this is the first time I have heard of it. First link I found: Fall-away? - The Acoustic Guitar Forum
 
Just so I'm not absolutely confused, are we talking .04 mm of relief at the 12th fret, right?
 
IMG_0376.jpgIMG_0377.jpg

This was the best I could do on short notice. What you don't see is the line for .040" at the bottom side of the low E string.

Maddi
 
tekwerk said:
View attachment 21767View attachment 21768

This was the best I could do on short notice. What you don't see is the line for .040" at the bottom side of the low E string.

Maddi
Click to expand...

This is the only signature guitar I know whose creator's own guitar tech will jump on a forum to answer a regular customer's questions and even take the trouble to take photos. I almost found this hilarious to see people working with such high profile artists this down to earth.
 
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WOW! My God, I did not realize that was "Maddi" that made the picture of John's guitar until you pointed that out DrKev!

Maddi: All of the JP fans around the world really do appreciate you taking the time to explain John's setup for us to emulate. With John's playing ability being out of this world, we as users will never be able to play like he does but at least we will sound and look good doing it! Thanks for the pictures Man!

That should put to bed any questions that MM users should have about JP's setup!
 
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