How To Set Up A Guitar Neck

Making a guitar neck aligning is really the 2d step in a guitar setup. The first step is changing the strings on your guitar. Once you accept a fresh set up of strings on your guitar, you are fix to make a guitar truss rod adjustment if necessary.

Be sure and check my other video guitar lessons on irresolute electrical guitar strings and changing acoustic guitar strings to set up you lot for this lesson. Afterwards your accept made a guitar neck adjustment, you can do a guitar intonation setup if yous have an electric guitar.

(Video Guitar Lesson)

Guitar Truss Rod Adjustment

Steel string guitars take a metal rod that goes through the neck called a truss rod. This allows for making adjustments to the neck of the guitar. Nylon string or Classical guitars don't have the power to adjust the neck.

Guitar Truss Rod Explaination

When making a truss rod adjustment to your guitar you lot are changing the curve of the neck. In general you desire to have your guitar cervix as straight equally possible without having whatsoever fret fizz.

Reasons for Making a Guitar Cervix Aligning

Hither are a couple of common reasons why yous might want to make a guitar truss rod adjustment.

The action of your strings above the fretboard is likewise high
Yous are getting fret buzz on some notes

Evaluating the Guitar Neck

There are a couple of means to evaluate the neck of your guitar and see if whatever adjustments need to be made. The offset is what is called sighting downwardly the neck. This just gives y'all a general idea of the current curve of your neck.

Sight Down Guitar Neck

The next way to evaluate curve of the neck of your guitar is a niggling more exact. Press downwards the 1st fret of the sixth string with your left hand alphabetize finger, press down at the 13th fret with a right paw finger.

Then you desire to evaluate how high the 6th cord is above about the 5th fret of the guitar. You can use your left hand pinky to printing the cord down against the fret to get a better thought of the clearance. At that place needs to be some clearance at the 5th fret. If the string is touching the fret, and then you will have fret buzz when playing.

If there is clearance to a higher place the 5th fret, then your neck does have some relief, or curve to it. How much curve, and how high the string is higher up the fifth fret is a lot a matter of personal taste and playing style. The judge of the strings used is some other factor. Thicker strings need more room to vibrate than thinner ones.

I personally play my electric guitars with very low action, and I'one thousand a light player. Other people like college activeness, and might hit the strings harder in general than I do. So they need a college action on their guitar.

Some guitars are easier to ready with low activity than others. Part of that has to practice with the guitar neck radius. The curve of the fretboard. The flatter the fretboard, the lower activeness you can take.

So basically I'thou proverb that I can't tell you lot exactly how much clearance there should be at that 5th fret, just there should exist some. And from there information technology'southward up to your personal taste.

Check Guitar Neck Relief

Adjusting the Cervix of Your Guitar

Warped Guitar Neck Adjustment

So if there is too much clearance, your guitar neck may be warped. When sighting down the neck you might take seen something like this. OK, if it was this bad your neck is firewood, simply yous get the thought. And yes I know, the guitar string defy physics 🙂

Warped Guitar Neck

After you have evaluated the cervix of your guitar and determined the cervix is warped a piddling…information technology'southward curved besides much. The action of your guitar is too high. This is the case a lot of the fourth dimension when adjustments are needed.

So kickoff yous need to notice where on your guitar to access the truss rod.

Many times for an electrical guitar truss rod adjustment you volition access the truss rod downwardly near the tuning pegs right at the end of the fretboard. Sometimes there is a comprehend that y'all will demand to remove with a spiral driver.

Electric Guitar Truss Rod Access

For some electric guitar you have to admission the truss rod at the other end of the cervix by either removing a faceplate, or actually removing the cervix of the guitar. If y'all take ane of these, deplorable about your luck 🙁 I HATE guitars that are designed that way. Take it to a guitar luthier and have them arrange your neck.

To me if you can't hands make small adjustments to the cervix of a guitar, that is a deal breaker. And aye…I'g talking to you John Mayer Strat.

Electric Guitar Truss Rod Access - 2

For an audio-visual guitar truss rod adjustment you lot will ofttimes access the truss rod right inside the sound whole at the end of the cervix.

Acoustic Guitar Truss Rod Access

It really depends on the guitar what type of tool you volition need to adjust the neck of your guitar. Merely generally it's a hex wrench. If yous bought your guitar new, so information technology should take come with the exact tool that will fit your guitar. Music stores are by and large pretty bad at giving customers those tools, so if you didn't get them with your guitar…go to the store and enquire for them if your purchase was recent.

Hex Wrench

Before I start my guitar cervix adjustment, I usually loosen my third and 4th strings on the guitar to requite me amend access. Y'all don't want to evaluate your cervix with these string loose, merely accept then loose when making adjustments.

Loosen 3rd and 4th Strings

Righty Tighty (Clockwise) – Lefty Loosey (Counter-Clockwise)

Retrieve the golden mechanical rule. Righty Tighty, Lefty Loosey. So to straighten the neck, yous need to plough the truss rod counter-clockwise…to the right with the end of the hex wrench facing up.

Direction to Turn Hex Wrench

Alarm: Before you tighten the truss rod, you might desire to loosen information technology but slightly by going to the left. Just to brand sure it will move freely. Tightening a truss rod too much can cause damage to your guitar. You can break the truss rod in the neck of your guitar. Which is bad 🙂

If your guitar is brand new and the neck has never been adapted, you are pretty safe. If it has never been adjusted yous might also hear a little cracking sound as you get-go turn. This could but be freeing the truss rod from some excess glue from the manufacturing procedure and non be something to worry about. (Just every bit always, if in doubt…take it to a repair shop and have a luthier conform your guitar)

Depending on how warped your guitar neck was, make one or 2 quarter plough adjustments. So tune your guitar support to pitch. Not merely your 3rd and 4th strings that you loosened…just all of them. Because you straightening the neck, all of the strings volition at present be a piffling higher in pitch than they were before.

If your guitar needs further adjustment that 2 quarter turns, y'all might want to wait at least a twenty-four hour period earlier tightening the truss rod more than. The forest of your guitar neck needs some fourth dimension to go used to the new tension placed on it by the truss rod. Sometimes you lot volition notice that no additional adjustment is needed afterwards the settling in period.

If you notice your neck however needs straightening after going through this process a couple of times. Take it to a repair shop. Your problems are beyond the do-it-yourself level. Or one last do-information technology-yourself level thing to attempt is to put lighter strings on your guitar. So with lighter strings there is less tension on the cervix. So the cervix will naturally be less warped.

Back Bowed Guitar Neck Adjustment

If the strings were touching at the 5th fret when you were evaluating the neck, information technology could exist too straight, or accept a back bow like the exaggerated picture below.

Bowed Guitar Neck

If afterward evaluating your neck you discover that in that location is a back bow. You can make counter-clockwise (to the left) adjustments to the guitar truss rod. But on some guitars, once the truss rod is loose, there is no where else to go. And you actually practice non want to accept your truss rod completely loose, it will rattle in the neck.

In that location are double activeness truss rods on some newer guitars where you tin keep turning counter-clockwise and the truss rod volition tighten in the other direction and yous can put relief in the neck that way. Only if yous don't feel the truss rod tightening up after multiple quarter turns to the left…and it just continues to loosen and then you lot don't have a double activity truss rod.

So at that point, y'all can take your guitar to luthier, and they can take some more drastic measures to adjust your neck. Or one concluding do-it-yourself remedy information technology to put heavier strings 1 your guitar. More string tension will pull your guitar neck in the desired direction.

Adjusting the String Top at the Bridge

Only after making the proper guitar truss rod adjustment will you want to think almost adjusting the height of the strings at the bridge. You might do and then to compensate for buzzing on a particular cord, or to try a lower the activity farther than a guitar neck adjustment would allow for.

On electric guitars yous can sometimes adjust each individual string tiptop independently, or on some you can only raise or lower each side of the bridge.

For audio-visual guitars you would take to either shave downward the bridge saddle, or build information technology up. And then adjusting the string top at the bridge on an acoustic guitar is not something I would recommend doing yourself.

How Frequently to Make a Guitar Neck Adjustment

The forest of the neck of your guitar breaths and moves depending on weather weather. Or over time string tension pulls the neck in one direction, and needs to be moved in the opposite direction with a guitar truss rod aligning.

Or even for some cheap entry level guitars the forest for the cervix was never dried properly, so in 6 month it's all out of whack as it dries more on it'south ain. So small guitar neck adjustments will probably be a normal part of your guitar maintenance just like changing your guitar strings.

Next Step in Your Do-It-Yourself Guitar Setup

Now that you have made the proper guitar neck adjustment, you will desire to make a guitar intonation adjustment if you have an electric guitar.