Esquire-esque

[EsquireEsque]

The back of the neck heel is flat.

For the low E buzz:
Is it for all frets or just some?
Is your neck set to slightly concave? Can you raise the low E bridge saddle a touch?

It was for all frets.
The nut, when the kit arrived, was very high, so I sanded it down a bit (which made a massive change for the better - just left a bit of fret buzz) I made the adjustment based on the height of the nut on my telecaster (Jet brand). I may have sanded the low E side a hair too low - but the nut is still just over a millimetre higher from the fretboard than the nut on my telecaster.

I've levelled the frets, adjusted the "relief" and the bridge saddle height but it took a bit to get rid of the buzz - which has gone mostly, if the string is plucked "with vigour" there is still a bit.

The "action" is now possibly a bit high, I do tend to "catch" that string when "I help my daughter" (it seems the more I practice the better she gets - of course, she thinks it's her!) but obviously if I lower it I run into the fretbuzz again.

This has made me think that if the fretboard was a bit lower (if the neck socket a tiny bit deeper (no more than a mil or so) that might be the cause - and I can lower the saddle height/action just a tad.

Otherwise it's working rather well acoustically (it's not wired yet), a touch "twangy" and high pitched and to my ear a bit louder than expected - but I'm putting that down to the Douglas Fir, the 24.75" scale length and the lighter strings (9's).

[Trevor Davies]

I think that either:
lowering the neck (and fretboard), or raising the saddle,
will have the same effect. Both will raise the string action along the fretboard. If you lower the fretboard, you will then need to adjust the saddle heights to get a good action! Easier to just raise the saddles. I do not think a 1 to 2 mm higher neck should be a real concern.

For "catching the string" - If you raised the low E saddle, did you also raise the A, D, G to match the 12 inch curvature of the fretboard?

For the "twangy" - I think that is the same for any solid body played acoustically.

[EsquireEsque]

Yes, that's the idea.... lower the fretboard so the saddle and nut hight can also be lowered just a bit.

The other saddles are pretty much right.


But I missed your other answer - "The back of the neck heel is flat"....

The back of the neck heel is slightly rounded in the 24.75" necks..... at least that's the case for the two that I've bought so far.
The backs of the headstocks are flat - but the heel is slightly rounded so as to be (I'm estimating) a mm or so thicker along the middle, as if it has a radius of 16".
An easier (?) way to achieve the same thing might be to sand the back of the heel flat


The "twangy" is in comparison to the Telecaster or my daughter's Stratocaster if they are also played acoustically. I believe those are both made of Basswood.

I'm thinking it's a feature of the Douglas Fir.
I wonder if Pine is the same?