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Warped Neck?

H

Hypnotaize

Guest
Apr 10, 2014
285
56
#1
Okay, just as a disclaimer. I know nothing about repairs. I have not been into playing music long enough to know anything about repairing, adjusting, or whatever, other than "yes. this is the nut. Tuning peg is this. This is the body." and that basic crap.

I've had this problem with my bass before, and I took it down to the music store, they said it just needed to adjust the neck, and bam, it was fixed. When I played the G string, I could hear it rattle against the nut. I wasn't playing it very hard at all. That's fixed, but now it's happening with the low E on my electric guitar.

I'm just wondering A, what this is, B, what to do to prevent it from happening again, and C, how it'd normally be fixed. I'm going to take it to the music store again since I don't trust myself, but I'd like to eventually be able to repair instruments.
 
#6
96tbird said:
Yep, and if it is relief, you can't prevent it from happening. The neck is going to shift with humidity levels seasonally and require truss adjustments.
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Okay, phew, this doesn't imply I take bad care of my basses :P
Tomorrow I'll head down to the music store and see if they'll show me how. There's a few guides on the internet, but I'm terrified of screwing that up.
 
#7
Hypnotaize said:
Okay, phew, this doesn't imply I take bad care of my basses :p
Tomorrow I'll head down to the music store and see if they'll show me how. There's a few guides on the internet, but I'm terrified of screwing that up.
Click to expand...

You really shouldn't be. The worst thing you can do is overtighten. But if you are making sure to turn no more than say 1/4 to 1/2 a turn at a time and more importantly you're not forcing a rod that is tough to turn, that's not likely to happen. Doing a little at a time and checking the relief is the best approach. It's the people who get impatient and crank on it that have the problems. I started doing my own setups about 10 years ago and it wasn't so scary. It's still a learning process, but it's better than paying someone to do it. These days the only thing I don't do myself are nut adjustments (mainly because I don't have the files) and fret work.
 
#8
fourstringdrums said:
You really shouldn't be. The worst thing you can do is overtighten. But if you making sure to turn no more than say 1/4 to 1/2 a turn at a time and more importantly you're not forcing a rod that is tough to turn, that's not likely to happen. Doing a little at a time and checking the relief is the best approach. It's the people who get impatient and crack on it that have the problems. I started doing my own setups about 10 years ago and it wasn't so scary. It's still a learning process, but it's better than paying someone to do it. These days the only thing I don't do myself are nut adjustments (mainly because I don't have the files) and fret work.
Click to expand...
Well, they're fairly nice. Usually if I take something down there to be fixed, they don't charge me unless I have to buy a new part. I usually buy at least some new picks so I don't feel like I'm taking advantage.
Oh well, I'll give it a shot.
 
#9
Hypnotaize said:
Well, they're fairly nice. Usually if I take something down there to be fixed, they don't charge me unless I have to buy a new part. I usually buy at least some new picks so I don't feel like I'm taking advantage.
Oh well, I'll give it a shot.
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That's good. I have a shop that will sometimes do free work depending on what it is. Still it's a nice feeling knowing that if you had to you could do it yourself. If you put a new set of strings on and all your truss rod needs is a tweak in either direction, it's nice to be able to do it yourself instead of having to take time to go down and have someone else do it.
 
#10
fourstringdrums said:
That's good. I have a shop that will sometimes do free work depending on what it is. Still it's a nice feeling knowing that if you had to you could do it yourself. If you put a new set of strings on and all your truss rod needs is a tweak in either direction, it's nice to be able to do it yourself instead of having to take time to go down and have someone else do it.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'm gonna ask him if he can show me how to do it myself.
 
#12
Zooberwerx said:
Two other considerations seeing how you mentioned the open E:

*Improperly installed string / not enough wraps around the string post / inadequate break angle.

*Failed to set witness point(s).

Riis
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Good points. Especially the witness points. I installed a new set of strings the other day, one I had never tried, and my open A string had a metallic "krraaaang" buzz to it. Not the typical open A buzz, but as if the string was bad. At first I thought it might be buzzing in the slot but after pressing down behind the nut slot a little bit to increase the break angle (the string was already at the bottom of the post and had enough wraps), the problem went away.
 

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