One thing I’m not sure about is the fall away of the strings. In the photo you will see a really low action close to the head stock, then it starts to fall away at the third fret. Also there is a slight buzz on the low E string when playing the first fret. It’s had strings on for about a week now. Should I be patient and wait and see if it evens out? Or is this a shim the neck or truss rod fix? It’s not a big deal for me as to me it plays good.
First step would be to check if the neck straight, or concave. You will need a notched straight edge. If you don’t have one, you can make one with a metal metre ruler. If the neck is concave you can look at adjusting the truss rod. If it is straight you may need to shim the neck.
The neck adjustment may lead to more fret buzz, so you will need to re level the frets. Sometimes this can take a few turns to get it right.
Current:
GTH-1
Completed:
AST-1FB
First Act ME276 (resurrected curb-side find)
ES-5V
Scratchie lapsteel
Custom ST-1 12 String
JBA-4
TL-1TB
Scratch Lapsteel
Meinl DIY Cajon
Cigar Box lap steel
Wishing:
Baritone
Open D/Standard Double 6 twin neck
Buzz on the low E string with the neck like that can only really mean that the nut slot is too low or the first fret is really high. But you've levelled the frets so it must be the nut. Can you take a picture showing how low the strings are over the first fret?
You may need a new nut. You could try the super glue + baking powder mix trick to fill in the slot and cut it again, but as replacement bone nuts are so cheap these days, unless it's a vintage instrument you want to keep all original, I don't see the need.
But the high strings on the upper frets mean that the bridge saddles need to come down in height.
My steps in setting up a guitar are normally:
1. Set up the neck bow with the truss rod. I find that with no strings on, after setting the net as flat a sit can be, a 1/2 turn to the right normally gives a slight concave bow with the strings on. This will depend on string gauge and neck stiffness but I find it a good position to start from.
2. String up the guitar to tension and leave it for a day. Check the tuning from time to time and adjust as necessary. The neck takes a while to settle properly under tension. If the intonation is way out at this point, then adjust it until it's roughly correct, but don't worry too much yet as everything else you do will affect it, so leave full intonation setting until the end.
3. Set the bridge/saddle height, Some people use feeler gauges to measure string height, but I like low actions so I keep lowering the saddles until the strings just start buzzing on the frets, then raise them slightly. The nut slots are normally too high at this point, so don't worry about open string height yet. Just fret each string at each position and make sure the string rings cleanly.
4. Have a look at the neck relief again. If the strings are lower above the upper frets than above the middle frets, then the neck can be straightened a bit. If the other way round, then loosen the trussrod slightly. No more than 1/4 turn at a time and wait a while to see the results.
5. Re-adjust saddle heights. If you've straightened the neck, this will pull the strings lower over the upper frets, so the saddles will need to be raised (and vice versa)
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until you are happy with the fretted action. Don't forget to bend the strings during each cycle to make sure they don't choke when bent.
7. Cut the nut slots to get a low action at the first fret. Easy if you have nut files, harder if you haven't and need to remove the nut and sand the bottom of the nut to get the same end result. If you have to use the second method, then don't glue the nut in position until you are happy with the first fret action. The lower the strings are here, the lower the overall action and the less downwards force from your fingers required to fret the string on the first few frets. The further you have to press the strings down on the first couple of frets, the more tension will be applied to the strings, and the more out of tune chords in this position will sound. So even if you prefer a medium or high overall action, it's still a good idea to get the string height over the first fret as low as possible (unless you intend to play slide on the guitar, where leaving a bit of height is beneficial to playing slide on the lower frets).
8. Set up the intonation.
Coming from an amateur to setting up...I thought the nut slots should allow you to play the first fret without the note sounding sharp (#).
Then file it down until it's within the range.
Geez now I'm coming across like the contrary responses to my own posts hehe.
cheers, Mark.
Attachment 33018
So I thought about it all night after posting the last one and remembered I wound the saddles right up. So I wound them down and itÂ’s pretty well all good. Still playing around with the the truss rod a bit to get it perfect.
I think your right with the nut. As you can see in the picture the angle of the low e string from the nut to the machine head is much different than the other strings.
Sorry, it didn’t attach in the last attempt
The bottom E will always have the greatest string break angle over the nut, and that's fine. But the other strings do look a bit lacking in break angle. Have you fitted the string trees yet, and if so, where? A picture of the full headstock would be useful.
No string trees yet, I’ll try to get to that this weekend.
The *normal position is for the top B/E tree to be level with the A tuner and the D/G tree (if there is one fitted) to be halfway between the A and bottom E tuner.
*Current Fender practice anyway, though even then there are exceptions. But it really doesn't matter too much as long as you don't have too shallow or too great a string break angle over the nut. The strings just need to be pulled down a bit to stop them buzzing in the slots, but not too much to create excessive friction and make stable tuning a problem.
Is the G/D tree necessary? I’ll probably put it on anyway.
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