Set (the bow) of your guitar neck!

2021. Jan. 16. · 1 min read
I just wanted to lower the action of my strings a little. Then things happened and now I feel like I have a new guitar!

In general I was pleased with the playability of my Framus Diablo Pro. But I started to play some licks recently which needed a little lower action at the higher frets in my opinion. It's an easy thing with this guitar, needs just an Allen key, some time and patience.

But when I was done I found that the changes introduced fretbuzz at certain positions. Which means that the bow of the neck was not correct. Ehh…

I've never adjusted the truss rod of any of my guitars myself before because I worried about ruining the neck.

This time however I thought that I should gave it a chance! And what a great idea it was!

I did it very carefully loosening the truss rod with a quarter turn at once. Then retuning the guitar and check. And I had to slightly adjust the action again (and the intonation) during the process too.

But the end result was worth the effort!

I've never thought that this adjustment can make such a difference!

It's not about just the playing comfort. Yes, the neck feels remarkably different now (means: better) - what is particularly interesting as it was not bad before (for me) either.

The sound of the guitar changed as well however! It is more open, it has more presence! Especially when I play chords at the low end of the neck.

So I can't recommend more to take care to have your guitar's neck bow (and action) set correctly. And you can (try to) do it yourself, just like me.

If you need detailed instructions I recommend Paul David's video or John LeVan's article about the topic.

Happy playing!