Setups are killing me

[blakejcan]

I feel like I am pretty good at building and wiring guitars at this point but man......that last bit of fret leveling and setups is still so frustrating.

I have 5 guitars I have built right now that all need that last little bit of love to be extremely playable and I am just burning out on getting them there. I could vent forever on this but really, if anyone has some helpful ideas on the things below where I am getting stuck, I am all ears. Thanks internet!

My circle of doom:

• Fret leveling--I get the fretboard dead straight, then I level. When I string it up, there are always wonky high/low spots that I need to clean up. Why? Oh Lord.....why?!?!
• Setting relief- If I get this to the right place, then I'm typically back to having new places that are fretting out.....soo.......more spot-leveling? Aghhh

Other stuff:

• Nut & saddles- Mostly ok here but I find that I end up with my saddles being very high on most of my builds. Neck pocket depth seems right so I'm not entirely sure whats going on there but it's the least of my worries relative to above. Nuts are nuts. One place where I'm good.

 

[ICTGoober]

As per my message to you earlier, are you supporting the neck while leveling? Don't use too much pressure - let the tool work.
Relief - If your neck was straight during leveling, it should be about right after bringing up to tension. You don't want a lot - just enough to let the light under the string in the middle of the neck.
I use a capo on the 1st fret to set the action at the bridge, and then cut each nut slot to the correct height working from the treble side to the bass.

 

[blakejcan]

I try to wedge some towels underneath to support it but it's not exactly rigid. Just kind of the best idea I could come up with.

I have some Allparts necks on my builds where everything is incredibly straight and flat. Fret rocker doesn't pickup any high spots and I'm still struggling to get it to play without buzz up and down the neck.

I feel like I am very close but just blowing it on some simple stuff.

 

[ICTGoober]

It's a process, Blake. Pretty sure Dan Erlewine and Roger Sadowsky weren't awesome right out of the gate.

I've been at this for 45 plus years, and I'm still learning! Keeps it interesting for sure.

 

[blakejcan]

I hear ya and I'm all for learning. Just feeling stuck and want to get these things to be as good as they can be. They look great! All the components for an amazing guitar are there. Just that last bit. Argh.

 

[jeremy]

when i first started doing neck work, i didnt have a neck rest. so i took a hand towel, folded it and sewed it into a bag, filled it with uncooked rice, and wrapped it in duct tape. i still have it some where and it worked well.

 

[Mincer]

Just buy a Plek machine and never worry about it again :/

 

[ICTGoober]

Just buy a Plek machine and never worry about it again :/

Don't joke about this...please. Unless you are willing to loan him the dough to buy and train on it.

 

[Mincer]

What are they, only $100k or something?

 

[GuitarStv]

when i first started doing neck work, i didnt have a neck rest. so i took a hand towel, folded it and sewed it into a bag, filled it with uncooked rice, and wrapped it in duct tape. i still have it some where and it worked well.

I usually just use a bag of oats.

 

[magillver]

Shooting from the hip here, but could it be a neck angle challenge? Have you tried maybe a thin shim toward the neck side the heel cup, increase your angle a bit and allow you to lower your saddles?

 

[Masta' C]

Don't joke about this...please. Unless you are willing to loan him the dough to buy and train on it.

My god, man, get a sense of humor. LOL!

 

[ICTGoober]

By the time you pay for shipping, it's about a quarter mill. That's before tariffs...

 

[blakejcan]

Shooting from the hip here, but could it be a neck angle challenge? Have you tried maybe a thin shim toward the neck side the heel cup, increase your angle a bit and allow you to lower your saddles?

totally could be! I just don't think I know enough to diagnose it

 

[Mincer]

By the time you pay for shipping, it's about a quarter mill. That's before tariffs...

If it was free shipping, I'd say go for it. Do you have Amazon Prime?

 

[magillver]

The nice thing about a shim is that it's temporary. If it doesn't seem like it's helping, just loosen the neck and take it out, no harm done...

 

[blakejcan]

Good call on the shim.


I'm already pretty far down the road on this TEMU plek machine. Seems like a great and reasonable idea for the 3-5 guitars I make a year.

 

[ErikH]

I started doing fret leveling, crown, polish work on my own during the Covid shutdown. Figured it was as good a time as any to pass time away when not working (I work from home anyway) and when all of us in the house wanted some alone time from each other. It took a lot of patience and practice. I've gotten better but have room for improvement. To support the neck I used what I could and that turned out to be a couple of old towels rolled up. It was rigid enough to give the support.

I've cut a couple nuts from blanks but in the end, I do prefer to start with pre-slotted and finish it out from there. Doesn't mean I won't start with a blank again if I have to. That too, requires a lot of patience. Measure twice, cut once, file, measure, file, measure. Yeah, it's a process.

Doing setups, action and relief, general stuff, is no problem. I've done that for years and have learned some new things along the way.

The only thing I have not done is fret replacement. I don't have the tools and I know a guy locally that does great work.

 

[blakejcan]

Good to hear. If I can do this other stuff, then I can do this too. Sometimes Youtube is not the best teacher.

 

[ICTGoober]

Sometimes Youtube is not the best teacher.

Yes. The crap outweighs the good.