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Very high action on a new build
http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=23432		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  pjl59 [ Thu Aug 13, 2009 1:51 pm ]
Post subject:  Very high action on a new build
I'm building a kit dread from LMI with a neck bought elsewhere with a 1.5 degree angle already cut in. When I bolted the neck to the body and strung it up, the action is extreamly high, pretty much unplayable. I'm using a radius disc with pre-shaped braces and have gone over this problem many times.

Any ideas would be great.
Author:  Michael Dale Payne [ Thu Aug 13, 2009 2:02 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Very high action on a new build
Part of the building process is to floss the neck cheeks so that you alter the neck angle so that when you lay a straight (and I do nean a persision straight edge) across the frets at the centerline of the guitar the bottom straight edge projects between 1/16" to 3/32" above the bridge at the saddle slot. This set your neck angle based on a saddle that is .125" proud of the bridge at the centerline of the guitar. Now there is still the shaping of the saddle, nut and slotting of the nut that happens when you do your set-up work that will also affect the action but seting the neck angle is peramount and done at construction then fine tuned after you apply finish to the guitar assuming you finish the body and neck seperatly then attach the neck after the finish has been rubbed out.

if you have already finished the guitar. then you are about to learn to do a neck reset :D
Author:  pjl59 [ Thu Aug 13, 2009 2:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Very high action on a new build
Forgive me as I'm new to this, but what exactly do you mean by "flossing the neck cheeks"?
Author:  Andy Zimmerman [ Thu Aug 13, 2009 2:28 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Very high action on a new build
Flossing the neck cheeks is when you use strips of sandpaper to selectively sand either side of the neck heel where it touches the body next to the tenon. Also, weight can be applied so that you can alter the neck angle.
Basically it is the way to adjust the neck angle in either direction and also it can allow you to adjust the centerline.
Author:  Laurent Brondel [ Thu Aug 13, 2009 2:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Very high action on a new build
You need to take off some wood at the bottom of the neck heel, keeping the top of the heel intact. If there is a lot of material to remove, a sharp chisel to cut the end grain is a must.
Then one method is to cut strips of sandpaper and slide it on each side under the neck heel, another (what I use) is to apply a piece of PSA sandpaper over the mortise, cut an opening for the tenon, and slide the neck up and down.
Remove a tiny bit of material at a time, checking the parallelism and your FB plane toward the bridge. Ideally a straightedge on the FB should meet the top of the bridge, give or take 1/16" depending how you want your action and how flexible your top is.
Author:  ChuckH [ Thu Aug 13, 2009 2:33 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Very high action on a new build
pjl59 wrote:
Forgive me as I'm new to this, but what exactly do you mean by "flossing the neck cheeks"?


Howdy PJLfiveniner,

Read this Tutorial on fitting a neck by Hesh Breakstone. It has lots of cool pictures.

Hope this helps a bit.
Author:  Michael Dale Payne [ Thu Aug 13, 2009 2:53 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Very high action on a new build
Your neck and neck block was pre shaped for 1.5 dgrees. but wood jointry is not a perfect fit situation. so all guitars need to have the neck cheeks (The part that touches the rim of the body adjusted so that when the neck bolts up with a fretted fret bord is in place the plane formed by the top of the leveled frets formes an plane that will be 1/16" to 3/32" higher than the bridge height at the nut slot.

to floss a neck to make both yaw and pitch adjustment tale 100 grit sand paper between the neck cheek and the rim. bolt the neck up some what loosly and pull th sand paper towards the back of the guitar holding the neck in place firmly. this will materila form the cheeks to adjust the angle. You need to remove material from the top part of the cheeks to make the neck tile towards the bridge as the angle is too high as it is. Keep in mind tht if your neck is good and centered right now you need to remove the same amount forn each cheek. It takes far less material to be removed at the cheek than the amount of distance you need to change at the bridge so go slow
Author:  Hesh [ Thu Aug 13, 2009 3:12 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Very high action on a new build
Here you go - this is how I fit necks: http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10102&t=15022%22
Author:  pjl59 [ Thu Aug 13, 2009 5:03 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Very high action on a new build
Thanks for all the good tips, guys. Just to be clear, the bottom of the low e string is just a hair under 3/8" at the 12th fret.
Like I said, pretty much unplayable--but I'm not giving up!
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