What do I do with this neck?

[Pbassred]

Honer B2AFL (Like a fretless Steinberger) throughneck. Its about 25 years old. I'm just setting it up after a long time not playing it. It seems like its concave at the 12th fret and convex at the 5th. So, if I tighten the truss rod I get buzzing at the 4th/5th but if I slacken it, the action is too high.

Any suggestions?

[lethargytartare]

Could be a number of things, so I'd suggest the following:

read up on measuring neck relief, set it up to where you get the buzzing on the 5th frets and lower, note the relief. Then reset it up so that the buzzing there is gone, measure the relief again. Also measure the action (see the stickies in this forum).

Post all those measurements back here -- and if you can get some pics, post those too.

With that kind of information, the folks here might be able to help you narrow down the issue and figure out a course of action.

You might also check the frets from 5 and lower -- see if any are loose, if any have gotten pushed out of their slots a bit. If you have a small straight-edge, you can check for any high frets -- hopefully it's something simple like that.

Also, if you can measure the depth of the nut slots, that might be handy too.

Cheers!

ltt

[wite_rabit]

Hello there! I'm sure someone a bit more experienced than me will respond, too.

For now:

Are you noting the shape of the fretboard with the strings depressed at various high/low frets? If not, fretting a string at the 4th/16th fret (for instance - can be moved up/down and lengthened/shortened) creates a straightedge from which to gauge neck relief.

If you did, though, I would say that you need to tighten that rod to level your neck out.


Then, address your 4th/5th fret buzz. Double-check that straightedge string along the neck (heck if you have a straightedge, toss that on and see!), it may be that you're over-tightening the truss rod and introducing the fret buzz.

If not, sight along your neck as well as fretting around the neck to gauge your action. Your saddles may need to be raised but keep your eye on your action. Raising your saddles will introduce higher action at your higher frets but may remove the 4th/5th fret buzz.

If it does, then your frets up there may be popping up or may be higher than your other frets. Otherwise, your nut's grooves may be worn deeper than spec, lowering the strings at the nut-end of the fretboard while causing no playability issues higher on the neck.


Complex, but step through and you may find yourself in a much better position as far as dealing with your buzz!