Electric Guitars

[tlhamon]

I was super excited when it arrived yesterday until I tried to play it.  The action was way too low and buzzing like crazy.  So after a couple of hours of trying things, I think I have it correct now, BUT I had to do somethings that I wouldn't expect to do on a guitar at this price point:

Shim the nut

Shim the neck

Add more neck relief than the EVH specs (although it does say to set the board almost flat)

And raise the tremolo

The issue now is that the tremolo is no longer on top of the body like it should be.  My suspicion is that I ended up with a bum neck pocket.

Or, am I just expecting too much from a guitar.  Any thoughts?

[GilmourD]

Why did you shim the neck? THAT will greatly affect bridge height.

To me it sounds like the neck just didn't have enough relief for your playing style and you adjusted everything else first. 

Go back to square one and fiddle with the truss rod. 

[Floyd Rosenbomb]

It is hard to really make a determination without being able to see the guitar in person.  There are several things on a guitar that go into a setup, and if any one of those is off, well, it feels like everything is off.

Your posts reads like the truss rod was set too tight, like the neck was perhaps beyond flat and moving into backbow.  That is simply the most likely explanation.  If it wasn't that, then as you say, nut, neck pocket, truss, and trem were perhaps all wrong from the factory, but that is just harder for me to believe.

At any rate, glad you got her up and running.  You should not have to do that type of work on that level of guitar, assuming it is new.

[larryguitar]

Without seeing it it's hard to be sure, but the range of things you did to that guitar point to another, as yet undiagnosed issue. Floyd might be right with the backbow, but there was something else going on; having to shim the nut, the neck and raise the bridge on a quality guitar is fairly unusual.

Not to be rude, but do you have a trained set-up guy who could check it out? Sometimes another set of eyes can do wonders....

Larry

[tlhamon]

My process was to assume it was set up correctly at the factory and other than the action being too low, I went step by step.

The factory spec for relief is only 0.01mm, which is essentially flat.  And that's about what it was.  I raised the action to factory spec at 1.5mm and the odd thing was that it was buzzing on frets 1-8, which is very odd.

This led me to believe that the nut may be too low.  So I shimmed it and that helped, but it was still buzzing, so I shimmed the neck to raise the headstock end.  That helped a bit too, but not enough.

Finally, I gave the neck quite a bit of relief and it's about 85% of what I would expect it to be.  Still a bit more buzz than I think it should have, but nothing horrible.

It just seems odd that it would require so much adjustment.  I was curious if anyone ran across one of these that was a stinker.  

[Firebrand]

Sounds like a high fret issue. I would contact Fender and see if they have any similar issues reported.

[GilmourD]

Shipped in a box by UPS/FedEx from California to you? I would never expect a guitar to be spot on setup wise. Fenders all get set up in the factory, but it's SoCal, which is typically warm. I've worked at Fender dealers and winter always messes with Fender setups. 

Like I said, remove your shims and go back to square one. Mess with the truss rod first. 

[tlhamon]

There IS a bum fret, but that isn't the issue (I know how to deal with that).

I will mess with it some more through the week and see if I can get a resolution.  I may just be expecting too much or it's just my OCD getting the better of me.

[sammyreynolds01]

i never assume a guitar is setup out of the box. it seems like the problem is a truss rod issue. you should never shim the neck unless it's necessary. if your order of steps is correct, why did you shim the neck and nut before you adjusted the truss rod?

[tlhamon]

I agree, shimming is my last resort.  I did it because the neck relief WAS SET TO FACTORY SPECS when I checked it.  I assumed it was correct and wanted to keep it that way.  I have fought many guitars in the past where I have bowed the neck to the point where I could shoot arrows with it and it didn't fix the problem until I shimmed the neck.  I assumed that was the issue here.

[sammyreynolds01]

When shimmed the neck it affected the bridge. To be on the safe side if you have a good tech where you live take it in.

[tlhamon]

When I got home and took a look at it again, the neck was all up to specs.  Giving the wood a night to bend to the new settings did the trick.  After playing it for a little while it felt good and my buzzing issues were reduced to the point where they didn't bother me.

Now my new issue is figuring out how to get my D-Tuna adjusted correctly.  After following directions I am still getting one of the two notes sharp.  For some reason the adjustment screw isn't allowing enough adjustment in the right direction.  That will be my obsession today.

Thanks to everyone for their advice.

[scottfletcher]

ridiculous .....they have had there problems with these guitars off the shelf.

I picked up 2 to try them at a GC and on one the toggle did not even work at all. And both of them had serious fret issues . and these were the Japanese models !!

Now they are made in China.            $ 1100 to 1200 and you have to dick with them after buying ? 

And a buddy of my that runs a pro shop that does everhthing from repairs to setups etc........25 yers experience  ........had one come across his bench the other day that was brand new that a customer brought in and it did not even come on at all  when pluffed in  !! 

Popped open the rear cover to discover 1 wire was loose and one was not even connected and the solder job was horrific. 

Unaceptable

[GilmourD]

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scottfletcher wrote:

ridiculous .....they have had there problems with these guitars off the shelf.

I picked up 2 to try them at a GC and on one the toggle did not even work at all. And both of them had serious fret issues . and these were the Japanese models !!

Now they are made in China.            $ 1100 to 1200 and you have to dick with them after buying ? 

And a buddy of my that runs a pro shop that does everhthing from repairs to setups etc........25 yers experience  ........had one come across his bench the other day that was brand new that a customer brought in and it did not even come on at all  when pluffed in  !! 

Popped open the rear cover to discover 1 wire was loose and one was not even connected and the solder job was horrific. 

Unaceptable

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Hey, Scott! I didn't realize you had an account over here at HC. I PM'd you once over at VH Links about some body and neck pricing. One of these days...

For those of you that don't know, Scott is an artiste. He makes some GORGEOUS guitars.

[scottfletcher]

Hey Gilmour. Thanks for the compliment.

Yeah I have been meaning to make more time over here.

I have left TGP for good.

I had an Email exchange with Brian Scherzer the owner and we had a disagreement on some issues and that was it for me.

They are just doing some dumb things over there. Mixing the Builders retailers for sale stuff with the general classifieds was one of the them.

And I know a lot of people have complained. And there was also one particular troller over there that they refused to do anything about so I had decided I had pushed my luck far enough and just ended it.

But anyway , I can be contacted at jetcityguitar.net any time. Or PM me here !


Thanks