Remove set neck and reset

Folks, I have a customer in the US who has finished an ESB-4 (which looks spectacular) but he hasn't done a mock build to check the neck angle, and he has the angle all wrong. He's got the bridge posts wound all the way out trying to compensate the angle, but it will never work.

I don't think there is any solution but to remove and reset the neck.

I know this has been done, but it is tricky. Is there an existing thread on here for this process, or can we start one?

Appreciate any assistance

I will direct our friend here so he can follow for advice.

Andy, if you are reading this, please register and post some photos of your ESB-4 bass so we can see how good it looks.

Thanks Adam, I really love the whole idea about building an axe for a very reasonable price, the quality surprised me, how great it is.
For some reason, it's not letting me add photos

Andy, the maximum photo size allowed by the forum is 1500 pixels on the longest side and less than 1GB overall. You'll either need to use some photo-editing software to reduce the pixel size of the photo (you can find freeware apps to do this if you haven't got anything already), or else host the photos somewhere else (like Photobucket) and add a link to the actual photo (not the page it's displayed on). Also after browsing to, and selecting the photos on your computer, you need to click on the 'upload file(s)' text under the browse box (this got me at first).

Sorry to hear you are having issues. Without any photos (and knowing how experienced you are at setting up guitars), it's first worth checking the neck bow. The neck should have a very slight concave bow to it. If it's got an upbow (see diagram below) , then the strings will need to be raised a lot higher than necessary to stop them buzzing.

Attachment 20492

If you do have an upbow, the truss rod needs to be loosened (turned anti-clockwise) until the neck becomes flat or with a slight concave bow. The neck takes time to settle after truss-rod changes so don't make large changes in one go. Normally 1/4 turn max. is advise. but until it's at least straight, I'd try 1/2 a turn, then wait an hour and see what it's like before making another 1/2 turn. As the neck straightens, you can bring the saddle height down as well.

If it's straight or with a slight concave bow, then it does sound like a neck reset is in order. The big question then is what glue you used to fix the neck on with? Hopefully it's something like Titebond Red Label or hide glue.

Can longer posts somehow be fabricated or improvised?

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Originally Posted by Paul_H

Can longer posts somehow be fabricated or improvised?

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Type it into a word doc and when done simply copy and paste as a reply here on the forum.

Oops! I meant, can longer bridge posts be fabricated to raise the bridge height :o

I'm sure they could, but it also leaves the strings a long way from the pickups, which then have to be raised really high - if they can be raised high enough.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Paul_H

Oops! I meant, can longer bridge posts be fabricated to raise the bridge height :o

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fork handles?

cheers, Mark.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

Andy, the maximum photo size allowed by the forum is 1500 pixels on the longest side and less than 1GB overall. You'll either need to use some photo-editing software to reduce the pixel size of the photo (you can find freeware apps to do this if you haven't got anything already), or else host the photos somewhere else (like Photobucket) and add a link to the actual photo (not the page it's displayed on).

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Just in addition to this, forget about Photobucket. I've been using them for over 8yrs, and now they are expecting around $300 so I can share my photos with the forums.
That certainly is not going to happen. I'm going to be looking at Imagur or something similar.