Question Just bought a Music Man JP6 and have a few questons..

[vaibanez05]

About two weeks ago I ordered a Music Man JP6 with the piezo bridge. I bought it on Reverb.com from a guitar shop in Georgia. When it arrived, I got it set up with the strings I liked (Daddario 10-46) since the guitar had 8 gauge strings on it. After getting it set up, I left the guitar alone for about a week. Over that week the neck moved forward, causing the action to raise and had to be adjusted again (probably since the guitar wasn't used to the midwest weather yet and wasn't used to the strings I had put on it). Now it seems as if the action is fine but gradually raises as you go higher on the fretboard, making it very difficult and irritating to play. The action isn't obnoxiously high but high enough to make playing the guitar absolutely unenjoyable. How to I do about fixing this?

Also, how do I go about cleaning the back of the neck after I play? I play every day and I was told to use lemon oil or ernie ball wonder wipes. Someone else told me to just use a clean damp cloth.Is there anything else I can use besides the lemon oil and wonder wipes that won't ruin the neck? This is my first Music Man guitar so I'm not 100% sure how to care for the neck.

Thanks

 

[Spudmurphy]

Hi and welcome to the forum. When you went from 8's to 10's , the trem plate would have tilted forward thereby making the action higher along with pulling the neck forward with the increased string tension.
Get the trem plate parallel to the body, then you may need to adjust the truss rod per the instructions found on the web site.

Oh yeah and we'd love to see some pics of your guitar?

EB wipes are good to use too

 

[vaibanez05]

Thanks!

I have the bridge level with the body. I went to go turn the truss rod one notch clockwise like the instructional video says to do but it doesnt seem to want to move. I dont know whether I'm doing something wrong or not. I don't want to push too hard and break something. I'll post a picture of my guitar and I'll try to take one right now of the exact issue I'm having once I figure out how to post pics

 

[beej]

Give the MM customer service guys a buzz next week, they can help you out.

 

[vaibanez05]

I emailed customer service. They said if something is wrong I can ship it out for an inspection, which is under warranty. I'm going to take it to a local guitar shop so they can take a look at it. If something is wrong, I'll ship it out to them.

 

[Kenji20022]

You care for it like just about any other guitar neck out there, you can use a slightly damp rag or cloth but I don't recommend it. The moisture might not be the best thing for your neck, I use a microfiber cloth to get rid of smudges on the body finish, wipe the back of the neck but I hardly ever sweat during recording so it's never really done much, then I clean each individual string with the cloth and put it away.

Also, don't change the setup and leave the guitar alone for a week, that's too much time for the guitar to be left festering improperly setup. If you change something and it's not setup properly (Trem Angle), Action, Intonation, Neck relief, you tend to that immediately and let it settle with a proper setup. Also, weather changes have never affected my guitars during transit from point A to B. Packages go from a shop, to a hot delivery car for days, and to your home, all of my guitars have arrived with no setup issues. If your action/intonation/fret buzz is an extreme case, it probably left it's last location that way.

If you put in heavier strings, you're going to need to detune the strings a bit, then screw the trem claw in further to get the trem level again. Once your trem is parallel to the body, you can check to see if the action is now fixed. If it's not and it's too high, completely detune every string and lower the trem posts until it's at a proper place. Usually for solid action my trem baseplates sit flush with the body. If your action is still raising the higher up you go, you might need a neck shim but I highly doubt you'll reach this point. Never had that problem with any of my bolt on guitars ever.

As far as using lemon oil/wonder wipes, I do that during string changes. Experiment and find what suits you best. Lemon oil won't "ruin" your necks, it's just lumber and it won't react any differently to the wood that any other guitar uses.

 

[vaibanez05]

Thanks for the cleaning and setup tips. I usually don't let any of my guitars sit for that long. I have been so busy with work that I just didn't have a chance to play it besides for a short period of time the day it was set up.

 

[vaibanez05]

Just got my guitar checked out. There were no serious issues, they just gave it a setup and adjusted a few things. The guitar plays great now.

 

[guitvai1]

I just went through the whole setup with my fairly new JP6. When I switched brands of guitar strings from EBMM to DR the neck went very straight with no relief. I get what you are saying with the truss rod as initially it was very stiff and needed a good push to get it to move but I think sometimes it's just stiff from not moving or it's tight as the neck is straight, no biggie to give it an extra push. I first gave the neck some appropriate relief (this can be checked by holding down the string at the 2nd and 12th fret and tapping about halfway in between), there should be barely any movement but definitely a little movement (about the thickness of the A string I'd say or slightly less). You can eyeball down the side of the neck from the nut side and you should see a very slight curve. I then measured the clearance of the string at the 12th fret and mine was high. I first adjusted the tremolo screws on the back of the guitar to get the bridge absolutely level when tuned to pitch. Then I lowered each string individually with a small allen key at the tremolo to factory or near factory spec (just under 2mm)- checking with a ruler on top of the 12th fret. I had to raise just my E string a touch to get rid of any buzz but other than that it's got great action now. I recommend you try this yourself - it's not that hard but does take a bit of patience.

 

[vaibanez05]

Awesome. Thanks! I'll try doing that the next time I need to tweek things on the guitar. The action moved yet again today. I got everything back to where it needs to be, but it seems as if the neck needs to be adjusted slighty yet again. I called Ernie Ball and talked to a tech. He said to give it another week or two to get used to the strings, the weather, and all that since this kind of thing apparently isn't uncommon.

 

[vaibanez05]

Just out of curiosity, is there a specific way the 3 springs in the back need to be positioned? Mine are angled like a pyramid (come closer together at the top)? Should they be straight and could that be part of the reason why things are still kind of unstable?

 

[guitvai1]

Mine came set up from the factory with just 2 springs angled in toward the neck. Feels very smooth like this and chirps nicely.

 

[vaibanez05]

I adjusted the truss rod on Wednesday before I went to bed and have been checking up on it a few times a day. Everything seems to be fine now. Thanks for the help and suggestions everyone!

 

[Rachmaninoff]

Just out of curiosity, is there a specific way the 3 springs in the back need to be positioned? Mine are angled like a pyramid (come closer together at the top)? Should they be straight and could that be part of the reason why things are still kind of unstable?

Mine came set up from the factory with just 2 springs angled in toward the neck.

Mine also came with 2 angled springs, Billy from EBMM told me that it's the factory setup.

There is no rule really, you can use the springs in any way you want. It doesn't affect the tension of the strings – the tension is always the same for a given pitch/gauge/length –, but it affects the feel of the guitar, particularly the string bending, because the strings are counterbalanced by different spring inertia, the bridge can move less or more, giving that spongy feel. But more springs, more stability... but less springs, easier trem arm and flutter.

I'm very curious about differents setups, I tried all possible springs configurations on my JP6. Today I'm using the same factory setup, 2 angled springs, with a .008 balanced gauge – yes, I like it really loose!

I'd suggest you to try other combinations too. It doesn't matter how much you read, you'll find which you like most only after you played them all.

 

[vaibanez05]

I've had 3 springs in my Ibanez Jem for 10 years now so I'm used to the feel of that. I think next I'm going to give the Ernie Ball tech guys a call again if this neck keeps moving on me. I went to go play this morning and I had to play with the truss rod again. It's getting to the point where I am seriously considering just selling this guitar

 

[Kenji20022]

^ Thinking about it, my very first JP6 was a fully loaded Mystic Dream that did that as well. The action and truss rod needed adjustment almost on a daily basis, Customer Service will hook you up, don't worry.

 

[vaibanez05]

When I called customer service earlier this week they said since the shop I bought the guitar from isn't an authorized dealer and apparently I'm not the first owner of the guitar which means the guitar isn't under warranty. If I were to need a new neck (hopefully not) it would cost me $750, which I'm not willing to shell out. What did customer service do for you? I'm also curious as to what was causing our problems with your first jp6. Maybe it's something that isn't a big deal and I can easily fix

 

[Kenji20022]

Same thing basically, this was an older used JP6 that I bought from a friend in fantastic condition so it was out of warranty and such. I just played it for awhile and the problem subsided over time, it wasn't as prominent as before. Then I sold it and started saving up for the JPXI, and instead got the JP12 when I had the money to fork over for one!

 

[vaibanez05]

I just set my jp6 up a few minutes ago. If the constant adjusting continues I will most likely just sell the guitar and buy something else. Maybe I'll get another Music Man, maybe not. Who knows.

 

[Etudica]

Same exact thing here when I brought my first brand new JP home a couple years ago. The neck kept moving substantially from day to day. I think that was the subject my first post on the forums here. Long story short, I continued tweaking 1/4 turn every day until it finally settled. It took nearly 3 months until it was 100% stable, but has been stable ever since. I would give it more time, especially if it is out of warrantly and you aren't racing the clock before a warranty would expire.