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Set Up From Hell
https://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=54429		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  jfmckenna [ Tue Sep 21, 2021 1:31 pm ]
Post subject:  Set Up From Hell
I cannot for the life of me figure out what is going on here. This is a Taylor builders edition guitar and frankly I was quite surprised at how poorly set up it was. There were at least 5 frets that needed to be glued back down and the action at the nut was really high. Unusual I thought for Taylor. I don't get as much simple set up work as I used to. Most of the guitars I work on now are 19th century guitars but I digress. I used to work for a shop that sold Taylors and was always impressed with the factory set ups. So I got to tuning up the nut and now... Well I guess I see why the action was so high there.

I got the low E string down but no where near as far as I normally go. I use the 3rd fret trick to set the string height. I normally like to let the E and A be a tad tall so that players can bang on open strings. The rest of them go so low you can barely see space over the first fret and you hear that 'tink' when you tap it... You all know what I mean. Well this E string is no where near where I would normally lower it too and it buzzes like hell!

I set the relief to whats considered normal, I set it even more to see if it would stop it and it didn't.

This is a V-Braced guitar. Would that possibly have anything to do with it? I know that sounds desperate but I'm desperate. It makes absolutely no sense. The resonant frequency of the guitar is almost spot on G so it's not an E wolf causeing excessive string vibration.

I've never seen anything like this before and I'm loosing money on this dawg!
Author:  DanKirkland [ Tue Sep 21, 2021 1:35 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Set Up From Hell
Pics would really help to diagnose this. Can you post some up?
Author:  jfmckenna [ Tue Sep 21, 2021 1:37 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Set Up From Hell
DanKirkland wrote:
Pics would really help to diagnose this. Can you post some up?


I can do that later. What exactly of? What angle? And so on?
Author:  Colin North [ Tue Sep 21, 2021 1:40 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Set Up From Hell
Fret rocker? Check for a high fret end.
Author:  DanKirkland [ Tue Sep 21, 2021 1:43 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Set Up From Hell
jfmckenna wrote:
DanKirkland wrote:
Pics would really help to diagnose this. Can you post some up?


I can do that later. What exactly of? What angle? And so on?


Neck angle projection over the body, just put a straight edge on the neck and see if there's a V shape between frets 1-14 and the fingerboard extension.

Saddle height

Relief with a straight edge

As a side note, see if your low E has a dent in it, it'll be obvious if it does, and if it does replace it and see if your buzzing goes away.
Author:  jfmckenna [ Tue Sep 21, 2021 1:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Set Up From Hell
Ok Dan. I'll see about that later...

I did fret rock it, that's how I found all the high frets, well that and the buzz. Couldn't believe it really!
Author:  Smylight [ Tue Sep 21, 2021 2:21 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Set Up From Hell
I've had quite a few Taylors with one or two high frets at or next to the body joint. Not yet sure why… excessive dryness, bad QC or even some cause related to the neck joint mechanics...? Anyway, once taken care of, all is back to normal.


Pierre
Guitares Torvisse
Author:  Chris Pile [ Tue Sep 21, 2021 3:17 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Set Up From Hell
No surprise to me. Taylors ain't all that. If they were really good, I'd own one.
Author:  Pmaj7 [ Wed Sep 22, 2021 10:36 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Set Up From Hell
You need to level the Frets to rule that out. Especially if you had loose frets.

But first, check for a ski ramp, I've had that cause open string buzzing on the E before.

Pat
Author:  jfmckenna [ Wed Sep 22, 2021 10:45 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Set Up From Hell
Problem solved. I had to set the relief to .017. A hair under that and it would buzz like hell. I don't normally set the relief past .01 but I guess some guitars...? It also needed a lot of fret work. Very disappointing to see on a $3k guitar. And it was not just high frets, there were a few of those, but the frets from about 13 to the end of the board were all set tight to the fretboard but they were just not leveled properly. This being a cut out guitar too.

Not this is a big deal but it does sort of indicate that they are in a bit of hurry or something but look what they left in the truss rod cavity.

Image
Author:  Conor_Searl [ Wed Sep 22, 2021 12:07 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Set Up From Hell
Had the guitar dried out?

.017" is a lot of relief (as I'm sure you know). I've found too much relief can cause as much buzzing as not enough relief. But obviously that's not the case with this one if you're happy with the relief.

For what its worth in my limited experience mystery buzzes are generally a bad string (even if its new) and once that's ruled out it's almost always a fretwork issue.
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