Bowed Neck on MM Kit

[palmdanes]

I recently Bought a kit, and when i put it together, the neck was bowed all over, I managed to get most of it out but the truss rod nut isnt gripping anything anymore, i cant turn it anymore. but the first 3 frets on the highest 3 strings are still unplayable, What do i do?

[Andy40]

Anychance of a side shot? I cant tell if its back bow or up bow. you've got to be careful not to adjust the truss rod too much. Just enough to get it straight. then check if your frets are level, probably not, I've not come across a kit that has leveled frets. You can buy a cheap fret rocker from Ebay or use Stanley knife blades as rockers. mark the high frets, then either make a fret bevel or file the offending frets down.

I use this guys method.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDy7cF255dY

[JB RETRO]

I've noticed mine has one on the same kit. Maybe I can slowly pull the bow out with the truss rod over a few weeks. I thought the strings may pull it out a bit. Maybe you could over tighten the strings and hang it for a few weeks from the headstock

[Simon Barden]

As Andy says, we need to see the side of the neck. It does sound like there might be a convex/back-bow, in which case you'll need to loosen the truss-rod nut, not tighten it. If you still had a concave bow, there should be no reason why the first three frets should be 'unplayable' (though this is a very subjective term and it would be better if you could fully describe what makes them unplayable).



But it could be a high fret (4th one I'd guess).

Ideally you need to try and get the fingerboard flat, checking with a notched straight-edge. You can make your own or buy one. PBG sell one but you can get similar from eBay. Once the board is flat, you can check for high frets with a normal straight-edge and smaller 'fret rockers'. Any high frets are worth trying to see if you can tap in further with a hammer. Either use one with a plastic or brass face, or use a bit of wood over the fret to protect it if using a standard steel-headed one. If that doesn't work, then you'll need to level some or all of the frets and re-profile the frets afterwards.

But first, some edge shots of the neck.

[palmdanes]

Here is a side view of the guitar

[Andy40]

Thanks palmy.

Mate, just from the photo. There looks like a very slight upbow on the neck, but needs to be checked with a notched straight edge. Thats the first thing i would do.

I can see that the action is most likley too low at the nut and way too high at the bridge. (probably to compensate the fret buzz.) If you want the action that low at the nut your fret work is going to need to be dead on.

The second thing I would do after straightening the neck (provided you haven't broken the truss rod, only ever slight turns on the truss rod should be done at a time 1/8 of a turn and allow time for the neck to resettle), I would get some stanley knife blades and use them as fret rockers to check and mark any high or low frets. then level the frets using a bevel (if needed) and recrown.

after that I would set the nut height and bridge saddle height and intonate the guitar!

[Fretworn]

From that photo I'd say you probably need to shim the neck, as it seems to be set at an angle at present.

[Simon Barden]

Yes, it looks like it may have a slight convex/back bow, or it may just be straight (difficult to tell what the camera lens is doing to straight lines) but it does look like it could do with the truss rod loosening a bit to get a very slight concave bow on the neck. But if you want to check for high frets, you are going to need a notched straight edge to get the neck as flat as possible first.

[DrNomis_44]

To adjust the bow in the neck of your guitar you need a capo and a set of automotive feeler gauges, put the capo on the neck between the nut and the 1st fret, next select the .012inch feeler gauge from the set of automotive feeler gauges and use it to check the gap at the 7th or 8th fret of the low E and high E strings while fretting at the 17th fret, you want to adjust the neck bow so that the .012inch feeler gauge just fits between the top of the 7th or 8th fret and the bottom of the two E strings.


If the gap is too small loosen the truss-rod nut, if the gap is too big tighten the truss-rod nut.


A guitar neck for an electric guitar is actually not supposed to be dead-straight when all strings are tuned to pitch, there is actually supposed to be a slight forward bow in the neck, this is to accommodate for the way the string vibrates when plucked which is an elliptical shape, and reduces the tendency for the string to buzz against the frets.