How To Adjust The Neck Relief On A Strat - Guitar Maintenance Lesson
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- čas přidán 2. 07. 2024
- How To Adjust The Neck Relief On A Strat - Guitar Maintenance Lesson
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To adjust your neck relief, you will need some equipment. These tools are all easy to get hold of and easy to use, so adjusting your own neck relief is still well within the boundaries of something you can do yourself. Here is the gear...
1. Feeler Gauge
The feeler gauge is what you use to measure the distance between the fret and the string, and therefore determine the neck relief. For example, if a 0.014" feeler gauge fits snuggly between the 7th fret and the string (specifically on the 7th fret) then your neck has 0.014" of relief.
2. Allen Key
You will need a set of allen keys for adjusting the truss rod. Some guitars supply you with the correct fitting allen key, but if you don't have that, a standard set of allen keys should give you the size you need.
3. Capo
As James walks you through in the video, you will need a good capo to hold down the strings at the 1st fret, thus allowing you to accurately measure the relief.
Now it's time to give it a try! There are a few steps to follow to get this correct, so we have written a handy checklist for you below:
1. Tune the guitar up to pitch
2. Capo the 1st fret and fret the last fret (thus giving you a straight edge)
3. Take your feeler gauge and measure at the 7th fret until you find a gauge that fits perfectly
4. A recommended relief for US strats is 0.008" to 0.012", so any higher or lower than that you will need to adjust (If you are unsure what recommended amount of relief your guitar is, check the manufacturers specs.)
5. Take the allen key and adjust the truss rod. Right for tighter (if you need to move from 0.014 to 0.012 for example) and left for looser (if you need to go from 0.006 to 0.008 for example)
6. Remember to adjust in increments of two hours on a clock face (for example, 10 to 12)
7. Retune your guitar back to pitch and repeat the process until you have the correct relief.
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The only bad thing about this video are the stupid comments below. You do realize that this advice is free right? These are very helpful videos. Thanks very much for them.
this is an unbelievably good tutorial. it's like being in a classroom.and the guy reminds me of me trying to learn from somebody.
I watched several videos on string height/ truss rod adjustment; I followed this one and BAMM! My Strat came to life again! Thanks so much.
Hi Sonny! Fantastic to hear, so glad it helped you :)
It went bammmmm! Wow
You men should work for Trower , Clapton or Malmsteen . Excellent Info
Great advice, and good to have someone asking the questions and prompting the reasoning behind why certain decisions are taken when making adjustments 👍
Super helpful series, thank you so much!
This video is amazing. I can find dozen of videos on this subject that are brief but this is the only one I found that Is this detailed, precise and informative. Thank you very much for it. For the whole series. Now after years of playing I finally know how to take care of and adjust my guitar. Thank you!
Excellent video, clear and covered all the details. This was a lot better than the video from Fender University. Thanks for such a good advice.
You're very welcome!
Best video I’ve found on the topic. Thanks.
One thing to add; Loosen the strings beforehand if you’re going to add tension to the rod, that way you reduce stripping it or anything else. Then tune up after you’ve made each adjustment.
I hate when I add tension forgetting to back off strings. It makes absolute sense.
Yes great video thank you very much for taking the time to explain this
Thank you. This video was so helpful for me after just ordering a new Fender AO 60s stratocaster.
If you don't have a set of feeler gauges, just use on old string (e.g. 0.014"). Free and as effective.
Should it be the same for every electric guitar?
@@brent3086 not far off.... if fretboard radius is fairly flat, you can get away with less relief.
Love the detail. Best stuff
Very helpful...thanks!
Thanks for the help!!!!🤙🌹🎵🎶
thanks!
Good Stuff.
People complaining about the talking clearly have the attention span of a squirrel, the dynamic is ask and answer/ discuss, if you hate it so much watch a different channel.
0.25mm is the spec for a 9.5" radius, in case you don't use inches as your metric
This is a great video, the fender one has 800k plus views but is poor in comparison. This is very clear and the written guidance is excellent.
Let the tech talk man!
absolutely and simply brilliant.
Do you do this in the same way for say a telecaster?
Fender's setup guide mentions fingerboard radius as affecting the desired amount of relief but does not mention anything about string gauges in that context.
I have a 1 way single adjustment rod on a 1984ish roadstar ibanez. As the nut starts to untighten the neck straightens out and when the neck is perfectly straight And with strings in tune the nut adjustment is done. Any more and the nut starts to unscrew out freely. I would like to put a little concave bow in it but it runs out of adjustment. Is there anything I can do?
Just wondering, if I have 24 frets, should I frets the 24th fret or the 21st
Can't find any Allen key in the adjustment recess on my legend strat?
Fantastic information, thanks for this! But yeah, a wee bit less interruptions :)
This is an information packed video. But only the guy with the glasses should be doing it, don't need the other guy.
What gauge strings were those?
Which one do you adjust first? Relief or action?
Ive turned my truss rod about half a turn (about an 8th of a turn each time after measuring each time) and its still well over my 0.015 guage and the truss rod won’t go any further. Is my neck fucked?
Excellent video, but much better at a faster speed. 1.25 seems to do the trick.
Your Guitar Academy :Ok. Before you do the neck relief on a Strat...How do you know or measure if your neck is
properly sitting in the neck pocket? I mean how high or low the top
fret board on the neck should align with the guitar body as well as the correct
aliment with the bridge?, and the saddles?
Hi there! Great question - I'm going to ask James before I get back to you properly, just to ensure we get the correct answer for you :) I'll be back in touch asap!
Here is the response from James: "Correct measurements for necks sitting in the pocket would be a question for the manufacturers. However, if your saddles are as low as they can go and the action height is still not good enough then maybe the neck is sitting too low in the pocket, a small shim would be required under the neck. If your saddles are at their highest and the action is too low still then maybe the neck is sitting too high in the pocket, check for a shim and remove. But, this should all be correct from manufacture, any concerns contact the manufacturer." Hope it helps :)
What if the trust rod is fully thight but the neck is still curved? Do you have any solution for that,looking forward for a very nice answer.Thank you
take it to a pro. but whatever you do, DONT keep tightening it
Shouldn’t relief always be measure in the playing condition?
I have set up my strat's bridge floating, and then I had to change the string height for my preferred action and adjusted the saddles too for perfect intonation. I've put 11s chromes in it. I keep the tuning Eb. Now about 8 months have passed and the neck has changed its position a little bit. On G and B string, frets after 12th have choked (especially when bending). The rest of the notes all over the fretboard sustain approx. more than 10 seconds easily. So my question is should I still refer my string height measured from the fretboard as described in this video? When I have other things going on with saddles, bridge and strings?
I stood on a bridge once. And saw something floating by below.
Don Baker scary flying shark?
"fret the 22nd fret and then put the feeler gauge over the fret and over the string" 2:50 in ....which fret? I did a freeze frame at 3:13 and he is checking at the 7th fret.
Thanks for at least mentioning that the Allen key is variable on different models. Internet answers don’t mention this which makes things confusing.
No demonstration of the re check with the 0.008" feeler gauge.
My Squier Bullet is measuring over 45 thousandths between the 6th string and the 9th fret with it set up as shown, capo on the 1st fret and holding it down with my finger on the last fret. So it would appear that I need a lot more truss rod tension. It's already cranked pretty tight and takes a fair amount of force to turn it any further. I don't want to snap it or slip and damage something or injure my hand. How much force should I need to use? And if it won't go any straighter by tightening it, is there anything else I can to fix it? You may have seen my comment on the saddle height adjusting video and I believe this is why I can't go any lower with the action without buzzing frets.
Hey, I've seen both of your comments and from the sounds of it, it sounds like it would be best to pass the guitar into a luthiers hands at this stage, if you're getting into truss rod adjustment territory and they'll also be able to make that Squier play like a guitar twice the price! Hope this helps :)
Wow that took a long time to explain such a simple concept.
Hi Tempest! Sorry about that - These two can definitely talk when they get together! I hope you still managed to get some good information from the video? Many thanks for watching too!
Tempest H yeah it's about a 1-minute video that they stretched out.
when the action is too high, how doI k now if I needed to adjust the rod or the height of saddles?
I'm an amateur myself,.but my knowledge on this right now is, adjust truss rod if you get buzz and adjust saddles if action is too high. Please check with someone else tho!cheers.
You'd check the straightness of the neck to determine this. Hold it up and look straight down the sides of the neck, looking from the bridge end towards the headstock. If you can see a large visible bend, the rod will definitely need to be adjusted. To be more specific, we'd need to know the model of your guitar.
Between 8-14k..So less than .10 at the 7th...Hmmm.
@@natemasterson1727 Don't use your eye, check it with the string as demonstrated in this video.
hiberNative the eye check is a luthier’s first tool to get a read on where we’re at with any guitar we’re working on. That’s why I mentioned to be more specific we would need to know the model of the guitar. Without knowing what model, what neck radius, what bridge, and so on, the best we can say is if you can see a *large visible* bend, it needs to be adjusted. The string thickness trick only works if that is the correct spec for your guitar’s neck relief. Though if you’re using a string instead of a feeler gauge, you’re probably just working on your own guitar to get it “close enough” anyway.
In another video I heard to capo the first fret and hold down the 12th fret to check. So which is it?
There's various systems/theories.
Oi it’s Henry from Skalitz!
Hey, Henry's come to see us!
I like lots of relief it's more slinkier
Y’all making a simple thing sound like nuclear physicist. Lol
mine has zero relief and so sensitive to play is that common with zero neck relief ?????
Hi, you generally want a very slight amount of neck relief to allow spaces between the strings and fretboard :)
"yeah", "sure", "okay", "okay", "sure", "yep", "okay", "yep sure" - 2nd bloke's entire contribution
😆😆
Lol
Harsh 😂
What if your truss rod is totally lose and the fret board is still flat with no relief? Its a 79 strat with a bullet truss rod adjustment. I get no buzz and it plays well but have a neck check tool and see no back bow at all.
Hi Greg! For now, if it plays well, I wouldn’t do anything but if you do start to get problems, it’s definitely a job for a guitar tech or a luthier. You could try putting heavier strings on to try and pull the neck into relief but it’s more likely that it will need some more serious treatment I’m afraid.
Thanks Rob, great insight! I'm sure that will massively help Greg :)
Helpful. How much more helpful it could have been had only the professional been involved and speaking to the camera. :)
About the only thing I disagree on is I like to totally slacken the strings before I adjust anything. Including the truss rod or anything on the bridge.
The truss rod counteracts the string's tension. That's its whole purpose. So what's the point in slackening the strings before adjusting it?
I use tools that I bought from StewMac. Way faster and easier, probably more accurate too.
the assistant wouldnt shut up! let the tech talk man! "OK, so we're---" ...
As someone watching post apocalyptic era when haircuts are illegal, the host has a sick haircut!
And a halo if you are thinkin outside the box...oh its a light nm
Metric
Imperial
Good sleep aid.
Great video and very helpful but MY OH MY....you Brits DO like to end every sentence with a superfluous "OK"...
Cheers M8 from North Canada......eh?
Pete and repeat.
Sorry I disagree with the capo idea ! To get a true reading you can't be using a capo on the first fret as the pressure on the back of the fretted string will cause the string to rise slightly giving a false reading at the feeler gauge measurement!.
The only accurate way to measure neck relief is to use a steel straight edge(on its edge) along the length of the neck against the first and last fret on the neck. Then take your feeler gauge measurement at the 7 or 8 fret underside of the straight edge against top of fret with all strings in situ and in tune. Yes its a bit awkward with the strings in the way but can be done.
Still a good insight about neck relief, sorry to be so critical about this small matter.
That's why you fret the string at 21st fret ........no?little late to the party👉🤡🤓
Just let the tech talk 🤣🤦🏽♂️🤷🏽♂️
The tech guy was very good but that assistant was annoying. Does he ever shut up?
The neck don't bend where its bolted so why fret last fret bull shit
Could have said the entire video in under 30 seconds. Way to drawwwwwwwwww it out
You guys are driving me nuts!!!!too much talking I’m all confused.
Sucks you never explained what a 'feeler guage' is or how to use it. I could shove any of them under the string, how i would know which is the right one is still a mystery. Onto the next video i guess.
This is way over done! Way too much chat and over explanation for what it needs. They didn't even tell us what shoes we need to wear or what music we should have playing in the background! Joking apart, wayyyy too long winded boys!
Hi there, sorry you didn't enjoy the video! These two can definitely chat for England, that's for sure!! Thanks for the feedback though, we'll try to get more to the point in the next set we film :)
are you being serious? Bit of a dumb comment ;)
Try again with just one person explaining what he is doing, the constant interjection is annoying.
Jesus get to the point.m
huh what,a capo,i never had a capo,an who can understand these british guys,and i dont have a feeler gauge either,good grief,and 40 miles from a friggin musick store.........speak up please,im 63 with ringin ears thanx to fender,an marshall amps.......
Get a hearing aid or turn the volume up if you can't hear them and, as for not understanding them, they were perfectly clear. Also had grammar not been invented when you went to school 50 years ago?
Right guy so annoying i cant watch wtfisthis
The one guy looks like his breath would stink real bad