Mr. B
New member
Re: LP bridge
Neck relief is the amount of relief (bow) you leave in the neck to allow the string to vibrate in a circular pattern in the middle of its length. Necks are not meant to be perfectly straight. They should have a slight dip that is at its deepest somewhere near the 7th-8th fret. Capo at the 1st fret and fret the string at the last fret with your finger. Using an accurate mini ruler, you should have at least .01" clearance between the string and fret (at about the 7th-8th fret). I usually leave a little more than that. You can use something like an index card or maybe a playing card to get CLOSE to the measurement, but that may be a little thick.
String radius: your saddles should have very close to the same arc from low-e to high-e as your frets do. On Gibsons this is often a 10" radius. The best way to check is with a radius guide like the ones that come with Dan Erlewine's "make you guitar play great" book. You can also use an accurate mini ruler to measure the individual string height at about the 15th-17th fret and make sure they are all the same (with the ruler setting on the frets directly beneath each string) . If one saddle is too low, then that one string can buzz, even though you have the string height set correctly overall. Since the saddles arent individually adjustable like on a strat, you might have to replace a saddle. I have had some luck a few times taking all the saddles off a TOM bridge and sitting them on a flat surface. You can eyeball them and move them around until the tallest ones are in the center and the lowest cut ones are out toward then edges.
Neck relief is the amount of relief (bow) you leave in the neck to allow the string to vibrate in a circular pattern in the middle of its length. Necks are not meant to be perfectly straight. They should have a slight dip that is at its deepest somewhere near the 7th-8th fret. Capo at the 1st fret and fret the string at the last fret with your finger. Using an accurate mini ruler, you should have at least .01" clearance between the string and fret (at about the 7th-8th fret). I usually leave a little more than that. You can use something like an index card or maybe a playing card to get CLOSE to the measurement, but that may be a little thick.
String radius: your saddles should have very close to the same arc from low-e to high-e as your frets do. On Gibsons this is often a 10" radius. The best way to check is with a radius guide like the ones that come with Dan Erlewine's "make you guitar play great" book. You can also use an accurate mini ruler to measure the individual string height at about the 15th-17th fret and make sure they are all the same (with the ruler setting on the frets directly beneath each string) . If one saddle is too low, then that one string can buzz, even though you have the string height set correctly overall. Since the saddles arent individually adjustable like on a strat, you might have to replace a saddle. I have had some luck a few times taking all the saddles off a TOM bridge and sitting them on a flat surface. You can eyeball them and move them around until the tallest ones are in the center and the lowest cut ones are out toward then edges.