getting the neck right on an acoustic fender

[Blogbass]

A couple of years ago I picked up a lovely Fender Victor Bailey.

Lovely bass especially when I bother to put it through my Bassman however I just can't get the neck right. When I asked my friendly Fender dealer about this problem he said that all acoustics have this issue.

I love a straight neck but when I try to get the concave out of the fretboard all I get is more fret buzz. Do I need to get a luthier to raise the bridge or maybe a higher nut?

I'd really like to be able to use the whole fretboard i.e. above the 10th fret without buzzing - I so love the "just pick me up aspect of acoustics".

 

[T-Bird]

Hi.

For some odd reason, most of the cheap to mid priced acoustic share a common "feature".

The end user is assumed to use so high action and lots of relief, so the fretwork is very lousy. Or more precisely, the frets are just installed without any leveling or dressing.
On top of that, the bridge and/or the bridge saddle(s) do not usually offer any adjustability.

On some acoustics, You either have to lose the piezo or route the channel deeper in order to keep the saddle to sit upright. Lousy engineering, but that's what we get.

Your best bet is a full setup, DIY or professional, doesn't really matter which one in the end.

If You choose DIY, get yourself at least a fret file and a few practice pieces of material for both the nut and the saddle(s). Plus of course the final saddle and nut material of Your preferred choice.
For me it's bone for acoustics, GraphTech plastic for electrics.

If low action is wanted, most acoustic instruments require constant tweaking as the seasons change, so out sourcing the bi-annual setups can break the bank very quickly. So I do advice going the DIY route .

Regards
Sam

 

[Blogbass]

Thanks Sam your advice is much appreciated - temp here is relatively constant but the humidity is a killer (living in tropics).

I am consulting a luthier about another bass in a few weeks (good ones are hard to come by here but he specializes in basses) but I am keen to learn more about this after I recently fixed my Martin acoustic's neglected neck. V satisfying to get it right and you always need an acoustic so that you can play yourself to sleep in the middle of the night!

Cheers James