Gang,
I need some help. I'm sorry if I'm being a nag, but I truly am trying to learn how to do my own setups to avoid having someone else mess with my guitars - or having to send them all the way across the country to have Jon do them. Unfortunately, I still have questions, and I don't know if I am asking them wrong or maybe being too long winded, but they seem to go unanswered here.
Do most of you find that more relief allows you to get a lower, more even action across the fretboard without buzzing, or is it better to have as little relief as possible and adjust the bridge height or saddles to remove the buzzing? Let me quantify that a bit further.
Right now, I have the action at 4/64 at the 12th fret (low E). It's 3/64 at the 5th, and 5/64 at the 24th. It plays ok, but I would really like the action a little lower. The relief is minimal - a VERY small, barely 'tappable' space between the low E string and the frets with the 2nd and 12th frets held, as described in the FAQ. I can't help but think that if I add relief, I'd be able to lower the saddles more (while still avoiding buzzing) - but I don't want to continue to jack the neck around to experiment. I tried using the FAQ instructions (if the buzzing is between the 1st and 5th frets, add relief, if between the 7th and 12th, remove relief), but this doesn't seem to work for me at ALL.
So that's it - do the measurements above sound about normal or as good as I'm going to get, or is it LIKELY that adding relief would allow me to lower the saddles further? Again - I'm trying not to unnecessarily beat up the neck, so I'd like an opinion before I blow another day tweaking.
As a side note, I also can't seem to get my low E intonated - it's at the end of it's
travel (string is as long as it will go) and still slightly off. Any suggestions?
Any help would be appreciated.
Mike
I need some help. I'm sorry if I'm being a nag, but I truly am trying to learn how to do my own setups to avoid having someone else mess with my guitars - or having to send them all the way across the country to have Jon do them. Unfortunately, I still have questions, and I don't know if I am asking them wrong or maybe being too long winded, but they seem to go unanswered here.
Do most of you find that more relief allows you to get a lower, more even action across the fretboard without buzzing, or is it better to have as little relief as possible and adjust the bridge height or saddles to remove the buzzing? Let me quantify that a bit further.
Right now, I have the action at 4/64 at the 12th fret (low E). It's 3/64 at the 5th, and 5/64 at the 24th. It plays ok, but I would really like the action a little lower. The relief is minimal - a VERY small, barely 'tappable' space between the low E string and the frets with the 2nd and 12th frets held, as described in the FAQ. I can't help but think that if I add relief, I'd be able to lower the saddles more (while still avoiding buzzing) - but I don't want to continue to jack the neck around to experiment. I tried using the FAQ instructions (if the buzzing is between the 1st and 5th frets, add relief, if between the 7th and 12th, remove relief), but this doesn't seem to work for me at ALL.
So that's it - do the measurements above sound about normal or as good as I'm going to get, or is it LIKELY that adding relief would allow me to lower the saddles further? Again - I'm trying not to unnecessarily beat up the neck, so I'd like an opinion before I blow another day tweaking.
As a side note, I also can't seem to get my low E intonated - it's at the end of it's
travel (string is as long as it will go) and still slightly off. Any suggestions?
Any help would be appreciated.
Mike
