warmoth pro neck side adjustment trouble

[cooler23]

Hi. I've bought Warmoth all-maple pro neck with fatback contour and SS frets. I't plays and feels great and everything. But I can't seem to figure out how to set-up the slight relief in this neck - no matter what I do it stay completely straight. I've written to Warmoth for help, they told me to take a tension off at the main big screw at the heel of the neck (like the old Fender necks from the 60's) and to fine-tune it with the side-adjustment screw. I did what they told me and I turned the big screw at the heel about one full turn counterclockwise. It is now very loose - I can turn it with my nail. It is just in line with the other wood. I'm afraid if I loosen it a bit more it would pop off or I would rise above the surrounding wood and than it would cause problem in the neck joint cavity. Side adjust mechanism seem to work fine - the little side screw is about 1,5mm inside the neck and it can go another one 1mm or so inside if I turn clockwise but it doesn't have any effect on the neck relief. I use .11 gauge strings in standard tuning so I think the tension should be big enough to pull the neck in the right direction. But after I did all these things the neck is still completely straight. Any suggestions please??

Thanks

 

[CrackedPepper]

I had some of the same issues.  First, what kind of wood is it?  My neck is all goncalo alves and the folks at Warmoth advised me that it flexes pretty slowly.  In other words, an adjustment might takes 24 hours before the neck finished moving.

The other thing I did was to take the neck off and reset it using the directions that came with it.  Reset using the big screw in the heel and then setting the side adjusting screw so the neck was in a completely neutral position.

I dunno if that helps, but Warmoth's advice seems to have worked for me.

 

[cooler23]

Hi. Thanks for the help. I will try to reset the neck. As I wrote at the beginning of my question - the neck is all-maple with fatback contour. I don't know but I suppose that maple should be flexing faster than goncalo alves. But maybe I just got unusually stable piece of maple. Thanks again

 

[CrackedPepper]

As I wrote at the beginning of my question - the neck is all-maple with fatback contour.

Sorry... I hate when people don't read the whole message. 

 

[AprioriMark]

I had issues with this on my PF/PF bass neck.  It's been nearly a year, and even with everything loose, it still doesn't bow *quite* enough.  It is getting better with time, but that must be some ridiculously hard wood.

-Mark

 

[spauldingrules]

Put on 13 gauge strings.  Tune UP a half step.  Play for a month or two (or just let it sit there - it doesn't care) or even longer.  Put your 9's or 10's or whatever back on.  Should help A LOT - it did on mine!  I had the same issue, and now it is fine.  I use 10s now.

 

[-CB-]

As I wrote at the beginning of my question - the neck is all-maple with fatback contour.

Ya know... Warmoth says they intentionally introduce a little relief in the machining process, but every single fat back I've put on an instrument has been slack on the rod.  Thats four necks now.  Three Vintage Modern, one Total Vintage.  My usual thing is to "just tighten" the nut, so there is the smallest tension on the rod... keep it from rattling mostly... and none have required extra adjustment or tightening to compensate for added relief.  In fact... the relief is very shallow, almost too shallow.  This has been on mahogany, one goncalo, and two maple necks.  So, like you, I'm wondering if these fat back necks are just some stiff mo'fo's.  I think they are, and I'm not complaining - they're great.  Just an observation.

 

[tfarny]

I wouldn't introduce relief just for the sake of it. If it plays perfectly, buzzing doesn't bug you at all, and you're happy with the action you get, I'd just leave it alone and enjoy it. There's no hard and fast rule about how much relief you need, it depends on your fret work and your tolerance for buzzing / need for low action. In my experience too, though, the necks tend to be pretty stiff which I call a good thing.

 

[-CB-]

only introduced when the amount present is inadequate

 

[CrackedPepper]

If it plays perfectly, buzzing doesn't bug you at all, and you're happy with the action you get, I'd just leave it alone and enjoy it.

My goncalo still buzzes a bit and it drives me nuts.  It still does this after a fret honing and setup.  It plays great but still buzzes.

Someone recently told me that all Strats buzz and that I will have to live with some buzz.  Can anyone corroborate or contradict this claim?

 

[rockskate4x]

If it plays perfectly, buzzing doesn't bug you at all, and you're happy with the action you get, I'd just leave it alone and enjoy it.

My goncalo still buzzes a bit and it drives me nuts.  It still does this after a fret honing and setup.  It plays great but still buzzes.

Someone recently told me that all Strats buzz and that I will have to live with some buzz.  Can anyone corroborate or contradict this claim?

"Someone" is very very wrong. There is nothing specific to strat style guitars that would make buzz any more than a tele or a LP or an SG or whatever.

 

[tfarny]

What's the relief currently? Have you gone over the frets with a straightedge? Have you tried raising your action a smidge to see how that feels? Also sometimes people set up their bridge radius too flat, without a radius gauge of some kind it's hard to avoid. Try raising the middle strings just a hair.

No reason a strat would buzz more than anything else unless you're talking 60 cycle buzz.

 

[GratefullyRedd]

What's the relief currently? Have you gone over the frets with a straightedge? Have you tried raising your action a smidge to see how that feels? Also sometimes people set up their bridge radius too flat, without a radius gauge of some kind it's hard to avoid. Try raising the middle strings just a hair.

No reason a strat would buzz more than anything else unless you're talking 60 cycle buzz.

aren't notched straightedges fairly expensive?

 

[tfarny]

I'm just talking about looking for high frets. You can get a good guesstimate of relief with two fingers, good light and an eyeball.

 

[CrackedPepper]

I've tried eyeballing relief - in general, I just can't see it.  As far as action goes, the 6 string's bridge saddle is up as high as it will go.  It still buzzes.

Three different guitar shops have looked at this and the problem remains.  It's better now than it has ever been in terms of not buzzing.  Either I have the worst luck with techs/luthiers in the world or the problem can't be solved.

Sorry if I hijacked this thread.  I'm hoping cooler23 is still getting out of this...