What do you consider a straight neck?

[PFDarkside]

Re: What do you consider a straight neck?

Too sensible for the internet.

But yeah, every guitar is wood, and wood is unpredictable. I have never understood trying to apply text book rules and measurements to guitar necks. If you know what you're doing, you treat every instrument as an individual case. Measure the end result if you want, don't start with measurements.

There must be so many people out there playing buzzy instruments, convinced they have great tone because all the spec's are 'text book correct'.

Or.... For the great many of us that have learned to do our own setups but aren't trained guitar techs, the text book measurements are great starting points allowing us to "get in the ballpark", and then tweak from there.

 

[Mincer]

Re: What do you consider a straight neck?

For relief, I use my eyes. About 1/3rd the thickness of the low E. Allows low action and no buzz.

 

[Obsessive Compulsive]

Re: What do you consider a straight neck?

No, ideally the neck has to be perfect straight, no relief. There is no reason for a relief at all cause it makes the action higher and the guitar harder to play.

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: What do you consider a straight neck?

There is no ideal with guitars.....
Idealism is just thoughts that bites themselves in the tail...

 

[Chad]

Re: What do you consider a straight neck?

I start at .008" measured with a straight edge right up against the D string on the bass side around the 7th fret (whichever fret has the most gap in that general area). This is usually really close to what works. Usually no more than +/- .003" is required from there.

 

[GoldenVulture]

Re: What do you consider a straight neck?

Guitars are noy very linear.

 

[Obsessive Compulsive]

Re: What do you consider a straight neck?

^Well as said, if you got a soft neck....you are screwed in anyway possible...it will bend one way and the the other way, it will react instantly to weather changes, the rod cannot keep it stable.....why do you think that they use all kinds of extra rods of all kinds of funny materials?!
To hide that the neck is made out of not so good wood...if the wood is from a quality piece it will last a very very long time with alittle maintenance...

So those expensive high end J-Craft Ibanez RG3xxx with funny KTS Titanium rod are made of junk wood? Daaammnnn....glad I haven't sunk my investment into one!

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: What do you consider a straight neck?

J-Craft.....a long long way off what they used to make!!!
And I really mean along way!
They did not need those rods in the 90's and early 2000's.....
But with these modern day lightning fast dried woods...
Yeah you go and drop your money in one of these!

 

[Obsessive Compulsive]

Re: What do you consider a straight neck?

The Ibanez Prestige is still the best line in the world. Even the non KTS is very stable. The use of the rod is just for marketing purpose. Differentiation. Nobody really needs it, but it's cool to have one.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: What do you consider a straight neck?

through my own experiments I've come to realize that a guitar will never sound the best it can with an absolutely straight neck. That measurement just can't be "0".

I find that something like .003''is much more realistic.

Do you agree?

This is absolutely basic/universally known guitar set up knowledge. I thought you were a guitar tech?

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: What do you consider a straight neck?

Quality of audio is subjective. Depending on the listener, any guitar can "sound its best" whether the neck forms a C or an I.

A flat neck (and flat being defined as flat, not "nearly", "almost", "not quite", or ".000000000001 relief") with action so low you cannot bend a string without fretting out is possible. That's where I start all my setups. The smoothest-playing guitar I ever had was set up that way. Effortless fretting up and down the neck. Scalar runs flowed like water over a cliff, and fretting chords took less effort than wetting the bed in your sleep. The guitar had to remain level or lean forward else the strings would fret out due to gravity.

Had I been a Neo-Classical shredder dude that never bent a string and only relied on the bridge for vibrato, it would have been absolutely perfect for me. However, I was raised on Zeppelin and ZZ Top, so I'm a bender. It was a fun 20 minutes, anyway.

But once I've got my "true flat and super low" starting point, I back the rod off just a smidge. If the end of the wrench is pointing at the 3rd string, I move it until it points at the 2nd string. Then I raise the bridge until I can bend the 15th fretted High E 2 steps (same as 17th fretted) without grinding out. I never bend more than that, so it works for me. I also don't punch the strings, so buzzing on the wound strings is minimal and tolerable, yet scalar runs are effortless.

Of course I also play Jacksons with a 12"-16" fretboard radius, so that has something to do with it, but I'm sure if I was ever stuck with an outdated design I could make it work, as long as the saddles were adjustable.

 

[dave74]

Re: What do you consider a straight neck?

For relief, I use my eyes. About 1/3rd the thickness of the low E. Allows low action and no buzz.

Provided you're using mid-40s gauge that basically comes out to about .4mm, which is just a sliver less than myself (I play thrash/death using thick jazz3 picks and dig in a bit, in a Scott Ian type fashion).
So we're using close to 10 times more relief than some of the postings here lol.





Measurements like .001" and .002" and the like are like not even visible with the naked eye lol, and won't make any difference over perfectly straight 0. You could blow on it and it would buzz.
Maybe with high action and paper-thin picks + baby-soft picking you could get by.
.002" is like 1/20th of a single mm!

The average human hair is .004", and the thinnest of human hairs is .002" just for comparison sake.

Guys who are using those kinds of measurements should just set it straight 0 because it won't make any difference what-so-ever.
Ibanez list .5mm as a starting point in the manual that came with my rgt,,,,,,,,,,,and for good reason.

 

[Myaccount876]

Re: What do you consider a straight neck?

A straight neck likes other necks of the opposite sex.

 

[astrozombie]

Re: What do you consider a straight neck?

This is absolutely basic/universally known guitar set up knowledge. I thought you were a guitar tech?

man you are just a ball of sunshine aren't you? so much love and respect for your fellow forum members, I'm sure your mother must be so proud of you.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: What do you consider a straight neck?

Cool your boots, man.

Glenn. A few years back, you started a thread in which you announced that you were now a guitar tech followed by the question, "how much should I charge?"

You may have forgotten this. Others have not. Somebody who really is a guitar tech should not really need to ask about neck relief or inlay gluing. Expect to get teased.

 

[Mincer]

Re: What do you consider a straight neck?

Provided you're using mid-40s gauge that basically comes out to about .4mm, which is just a sliver less than myself (I play thrash/death using thick jazz3 picks and dig in a bit, in a Scott Ian type fashion).
So we're using close to 10 times more relief than some of the postings here lol.





Measurements like .001" and .002" and the like are like not even visible with the naked eye lol, and won't make any difference over perfectly straight 0. You could blow on it and it would buzz.
Maybe with high action and paper-thin picks + baby-soft picking you could get by.
.002" is like 1/20th of a single mm!

The average human hair is .004", and the thinnest of human hairs is .002" just for comparison sake.

Guys who are using those kinds of measurements should just set it straight 0 because it won't make any difference what-so-ever.
Ibanez list .5mm as a starting point in the manual that came with my rgt,,,,,,,,,,,and for good reason.

I play very lightly on a scalloped neck, and the elliptical vibrating pattern of the string doesn't cause buzzing for me, although most people can't play my guitars.

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: What do you consider a straight neck?

I always considered neck "straight" when it didn't have any buzzing or dead spots, not that it was literally straight

 

[Nostalgic Distortion]

Re: What do you consider a straight neck?

Wow, this thread took a turn for the worst.... Share information, be friendly to one another, or not, but keep negative posts in your head instead of on the forum page. Petty arguments over what someone did or didn't say months or years ago are not going to help anyone today & helping other guitarist, no matter their skill level is why the forum exists. Or so I thought anyway?

Teasing just makes every member look bad. If someone is just passing through for a quick answer or thinking about joining our little family here this kind of stuff wil make them go elsewhere & we ALL know how helpful some other similar forums are! I mean I don't think I'd want to join a group or forum where in I'm going to be ridiculed just for asking a simple question...

I'm pretty sure this is how this forum was designed to work & we all agreed with the terms of use....

 

[Myaccount876]

Re: What do you consider a straight neck?

man you are just a ball of sunshine aren't you? so much love and respect for your fellow forum members, I'm sure your mother must be so proud of you.

Why do you have to be such a piece of **** huh? It's just a question on a message board for all to learn from. What the **** is your problem? Did I bag your wife or girlfriend and haven't found out about it? I don't think so.

Fill out a butthurt report form Jimbo. You ask questions, and you get answers.

 

[Chris of Arabia]

Re: What do you consider a straight neck?

Hmmm... same old familiar forum. Can't think why I ever stepped out. At least I broke the seal...