Matthew's Luthier Page

There are many differnt ways to set up a guitar. The actually settings come down to personal preferance of a player. There are many well known players and they all have there own setup that fits thier style of playing. There are many things that can effect the way your instrument will behave. Changing on or more settings of a guitar will effect all the rest of the settings in some way or another. A good working knowalage of these aspects can help you to decide how you would ulitmatly like your instrument to play or feel like when you play it. Although I am about to tell you about these things this doesnt nessicarly make you quailified to do all your own work. One wrong adjustment can make your instrument act in a way that will drive you nuts. So I would rather you take the information on this page and use it as a referance when you take your instrument to a trained professional.

Now we have to look at the determining factors in guitar setup. In personal experiance I have found the first step to any repair or setup of anything is to check and see if there is an obvious fault. Such as a bent tunning machine, or even missing parts. If this is the case you sould contact a local Luthier and address the issue.

Steal stringed guitars have a metal rod running down the center of the neck. This is placed in there to support the wooden neck. The metal strings place alot of stress on the neck so the TRUSS ROD is placed in there to help support and maintain the correct curve that is in the neck. If the truss rod is tightened too much you will have not enough relief in the neck to make your action function. You may even have a problem with your neck bowing or curving in the opposite direction. If the truss rod is loosened too much you will have way too much relief causing the guitar to have abnormally high action. This will make it difficult or uncomfortatable for you to even attempt to play this instrument. When the truss rod is set to the correct possition or tightened correctly it will maxiumize the action your neck is resonsible for.

Generally Concert guitars or the ones with nylon strings do not have truss rods. The strings do not place as much tension on the neck so the nessisity of having this part becomes less likely. This is not to say that somewhere out there there is a guitar like the one i have discribed that has one but to this day i have not seen one myself.

Ok now what you've been waiting for. . . How do I know what a good neck setting (with the truss rod) looks like? There are a few different ways of doing it. Some people like to take a straight edge and run it down the fingure board on top of the frets to see where and how much gap there is. Others like to look down the neck or sight the neck to see what the natural curve looks like. Either of these two methods require some skill and if you have never done it, it will be almost impossible for you to even begin this way. The other way to check the relief in the neck is to check distances along the fingerboard with feeler gauges or other tools that measure in .001 of an inch. If you measure the right areas can come up with disirable results many times. PLAYING WITH THE TRUSS ROD TILL IT SEEMS RIGHT IS NOT AN EXCEPTABLE WAY TO CHECK OR SET IT. DO NOT TRY IT DO NOT ATTEMPT IT DO NOT THINK OF IT IN FACT FORGET I EVEN MENTIONED IT.


	Truss Rod Adjustment There are many differnt ways to set up a guitar. The actually settings come down to personal preferance of a player. There are many well known players and they all have there own setup that fits thier style of playing. There are many things that can effect the way your instrument will behave. Changing on or more settings of a guitar will effect all the rest of the settings in some way or another. A good working knowalage of these aspects can help you to decide how you would ulitmatly like your instrument to play or feel like when you play it. Although I am about to tell you about these things this doesnt nessicarly make you quailified to do all your own work. One wrong adjustment can make your instrument act in a way that will drive you nuts. So I would rather you take the information on this page and use it as a referance when you take your instrument to a trained professional. Now we have to look at the determining factors in guitar setup. In personal experiance I have found the first step to any repair or setup of anything is to check and see if there is an obvious fault. Such as a bent tunning machine, or even missing parts. If this is the case you sould contact a local Luthier and address the issue. Steal stringed guitars have a metal rod running down the center of the neck. This is placed in there to support the wooden neck. The metal strings place alot of stress on the neck so the TRUSS ROD is placed in there to help support and maintain the correct curve that is in the neck. If the truss rod is tightened too much you will have not enough relief in the neck to make your action function. You may even have a problem with your neck bowing or curving in the opposite direction. If the truss rod is loosened too much you will have way too much relief causing the guitar to have abnormally high action. This will make it difficult or uncomfortatable for you to even attempt to play this instrument. When the truss rod is set to the correct possition or tightened correctly it will maxiumize the action your neck is resonsible for. Generally Concert guitars or the ones with nylon strings do not have truss rods. The strings do not place as much tension on the neck so the nessisity of having this part becomes less likely. This is not to say that somewhere out there there is a guitar like the one i have discribed that has one but to this day i have not seen one myself. Ok now what you've been waiting for. . . How do I know what a good neck setting (with the truss rod) looks like? There are a few different ways of doing it. Some people like to take a straight edge and run it down the fingure board on top of the frets to see where and how much gap there is. Others like to look down the neck or sight the neck to see what the natural curve looks like. Either of these two methods require some skill and if you have never done it, it will be almost impossible for you to even begin this way. The other way to check the relief in the neck is to check distances along the fingerboard with feeler gauges or other tools that measure in .001 of an inch. If you measure the right areas can come up with disirable results many times. PLAYING WITH THE TRUSS ROD TILL IT SEEMS RIGHT IS NOT AN EXCEPTABLE WAY TO CHECK OR SET IT. DO NOT TRY IT DO NOT ATTEMPT IT DO NOT THINK OF IT IN FACT FORGET I EVEN MENTIONED IT.