Adjusting the truss rod on a warmoth pro neck.

[The Norwegian Guy]

I have finally some time to spend with my new warmoth, and I love it!
The only problem is that the string height is pretty high at the moment. I have never adjusted a neck before, so I could use some help. What should I do to lower the stringheight? and do I have to decrease the string tension before I adjust it?

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

It's a combination of the truss rod, saddles, and nut.  The three W necks I have, I ordered them with a W installed nut.  All 3 have been high, no doubt by design, to allow lowering to preference.

 

[The Norwegian Guy]

I see. But could someone give me an easy "how to do" guide?

 

[The Norwegian Guy]

This is where I'm at.

Any tips on how I should approach this?

 

[khal]

Hi Norwegian Guy.

Well, what I will write now might sound as if I am an arrogant smartass who looks down at a newbie.
But I am not.
But just by the way you ask the question and say that you have never adjusted a neck before, shows that you have zero information about the matter.
Your question is so vague, that I (and maybe the others too) don't know where to start.

It's a combination of the truss rod, saddles, and nut.

Exactly, it's a sum of all these variables...

Before I started my first project I had some experience modifying my guitars. You learn a lot by doing this. And over the time I read a lot: bought books, been to the forums and online tutorials....

So I suggest the following: start with a good online tutorial, for example the following ones:

http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/tutorial1.htm
http://www.icepoint.com/guitar/Setting%20up%20your%20electric%20guitar/
http://mysite.verizon.net/jazz.guitar/guitarsetup.htm

Read it and try to aply it to your own guitar.

Google around and find others.
On youtube there are some nice films too.

You will see that you will start to have more specific questions.
Post them here and we will answer them as good as we can (sorry folks, does everybody agree that I say: "we"? :toothy10

Good luck :icon_thumright:

 

[The Norwegian Guy]

Thanks man

 

[-CB-]

Its real easy.

First thing - get the saddles to adjust the string elevation "ok" but a little on the high side.

Then you're ready to observe the relief by pressing fret 1 and fret 22 (or 21) and peering under fret 8.  How much room is between the top of the fret and the bottom of the string?  There should be some, and it should be about the same as your B string is thick.  You can actually use a bit of leftover B string as a feeler.  Even the thickness of your unwound G string is ok.

Adjust the neck - per Warmoth instructions on their website - to get more or less relief.  Its not a bad idea to detune a bit, make a small adjustment then retune up to pitch and observe the relief again, to see if further adjustment is needed.  On a standard truss rod, once its properly set, only a quarter turn or so is all thats needed to adjust for seasonal changes in the wood (humidity makes the fretboards grow, giving extra help to the truss rod).

Now you can fine tune the saddles.  Adjust so you have 3.5/64ths of an inch between fret 12's top and the underside of the high E string.  On the low E side, make it 4/64ths

Adjust the string length to get the intonation just right. 

Done.

EXCEPT.....

You might need some nut attention.  Warmoth fits the nuts VERY WELL, but you're guitar, your set up, your hands, will probably want to fine tune it.  There is a method that is easy and reliable - at - www.frets.com

http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Luthier/Technique/Setup/SetNut/setnut.html