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| Back Bow Neck & Fret Leveling http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=37315 |
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| Author: | klooker [ Wed Aug 01, 2012 8:15 am ] |
| Post subject: | Back Bow Neck & Fret Leveling |
I'm working on an electric but this should equally apply to all guitars. My neck had a little back bow & I was able to reduce it when gluing on the fingerboard but things are still not perfect. I've adjusted the truss rod to get things as flat as possible & I'm left with having to remove about 0.007" off the highest frets to get everything level. I used StewMac medium/meduim 0148 fretwire with 0.039" crown. In retrospect, I should have used something with a higher crown - lesson learned. So, would approximately 0.030" of crown after dressing be ok? It's an electric that will be strung with 9's. Thanks, Kevin Looker |
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| Author: | John Coloccia [ Wed Aug 01, 2012 8:32 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Back Bow Neck & Fret Leveling |
It's OK, but it's pretty low. You're not in fretless wonder territory, but you're gaining on it. You will probably find that your fret crowning files will not work because they'll hit the FB before rounding the fret. That's my guess. When you're all done, though, the guitar will play fine but will feel a little funny. Shredding and playing chords will feel wonderful. Blues and rock (with lots of bends) will not be that great. Personally, I would yank the frets, level the fingerboard, and reinstall. No one will ever noticed the FB is .007" thinner in the middle, but everyone will notice the low frets. Just my opinion. |
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| Author: | Rodger Knox [ Wed Aug 01, 2012 9:04 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Back Bow Neck & Fret Leveling |
Have you strung it up and tuned to pitch to see how much relief the strings will pull? Also, where are the high frets? I wouldn't worry about it if the strings will pull a little relief, especially if the high frets are near the body. I've had more trouble getting a decent setup when I've had to use the double-action rod to get any relief. I believe the "natural" curve from string tension is in a better location than the curve induced by the rod, but that's an unverified opinion. |
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| Author: | klooker [ Wed Aug 01, 2012 9:54 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Back Bow Neck & Fret Leveling |
Thanks for the replies. The neck isn't on the body yet. With the truss rod in it's neutral position, the neck is very flat until you get to the first fret, then it falls back. If I adjust the rod, I can get the first fret to within 0.005" of my straight edge but then the higher frets around 9 or 10 fall away from the straight edge by about 0.007". I think I'll move forward & if it winds up too funky, pull the frets & level the fingerboard. Kevin Looker |
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| Author: | Rodger Knox [ Wed Aug 01, 2012 10:20 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Back Bow Neck & Fret Leveling |
Are you using a zero fret? Be sure it's tall enough! I did one a while back where I neglected to level the zero fret, thinking that leaving it a little higher would be fine. And it would have been, IF it had been a little higher, but it wasn't. I should have at least checked it with a fret rocker.  Go ahead with it, I have confidence you can make it work. |
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| Author: | Daniel Minard [ Wed Aug 01, 2012 11:12 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Back Bow Neck & Fret Leveling |
I wouldn't touch the frets 'till after the guitar's been strung up for a few days. The problem could well go away on its own. |
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| Author: | klooker [ Wed Aug 01, 2012 11:26 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Back Bow Neck & Fret Leveling |
Daniel Minard wrote: I wouldn't touch the frets 'till after the guitar's been strung up for a few days. The problem could well go away on its own. That's kind of what I'm hoping. Kevin Looker |
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| Author: | John Coloccia [ Wed Aug 01, 2012 11:52 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Back Bow Neck & Fret Leveling |
So it sounds like you just have some fall away at the 1st fret, and then when you adjust for the first fret, you put a lot of relief in the neck and you have a big gap in the middle. Is that what's going on? If it is, you can just put a taller fret at the 1st, carefully level that by hand until it's even with 2 and 3, and then continue one leveling as normal. That's a better approach than taking down all of the other frets to match the 1st. That's just my opinion, but if that came in to me as a repair, that would absolutely be my approach UNLESS the neck straightened out after removing the 1st fret. Then I would know that the problem is a way too tight fret slot bending the neck back at that point. |
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| Author: | klooker [ Wed Aug 01, 2012 1:16 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Back Bow Neck & Fret Leveling |
John Coloccia wrote: So it sounds like you just have some fall away at the 1st fret, and then when you adjust for the first fret, you put a lot of relief in the neck and you have a big gap in the middle. Is that what's going on? If it is, That's pretty much what's going on. John Coloccia wrote: ...you can just put a taller fret at the 1st, carefully level that by hand until it's even with 2 and 3, and then continue one leveling as normal. That's a better approach than taking down all of the other frets to match the 1st. Once it's built, I'll string it up, let it settle then try that if things don't change. Thanks, Kevin Looker |
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