What the hell is a neck reset and why the hell would you want one?

You’ll often hear talk about neck resets (or sometimes, neck sets) but the reasons it’s required are often glossed over by saying it’s just something that acoustics need sometimes. It’s all pretty simple and it has to do with geometry (stay with me…) and wood.

Huh?

Let me try to make a little sense of that.

Why would I need a neck reset?

When an acoustic guitar is made, it is designed and constructed such that the guitar’s string height or action is round about where it should be to ensure a comfortable and buzz-free playing experience. Things are all cool for a while but, as time goes on, the wood that the guitar is made from alters very slowly. The tension of the strings (which is considerable), over the years, pulls the bridge up and, often, pushes the upper bouts of the soundboard down. Click on the image above for a closer look.

This happens to pretty much all steel string acoustic guitars eventually. How quickly it occurs, and the degree to which the soundboard shifts can vary considerably due to factors like construction, timber variables and environmental variables. It can happen in a few years or in sixty years. The bellying may be severe or may be so small that it doesn’t adversely affect things.

As this process occurs, the guitar’s geometry changes. The relationship of neck/fingerboard to bridge/saddle is altered and the upshot is a higher action.

In an ideal world, a straight line along the tops of the frets should terminate around the top of the bridge. This allows a guitar’s string action be set using the height of the saddle. A good indication that a guitar is a candidate for a neck reset is when a straight-edge along the top of the frets contacts somewhere below the top of the bridge (as in this image).

For a quick, visual assessment of the same thing, sight down the guitar neck from the headstock end. This will give you an idea of the neck-set situation.

What you’d like to see is the frets looking like they’re hitting the top of the bridge and not, as in this image, somewhere quite a ways down it.

What we often see, as guitars age, is that the saddle has been lowered again and again over the years to compensate for these changes. Most guitars are manufactured with a bit of ‘adjustment’ in mind and it’s often ok to do this for a while. In most cases, it just buys time though and eventually you run out of saddle height and can lower it no more.

So what can be done about all this?

What is a neck reset?

There are some things to consider before a neck reset is decided upon and you should talk over any alternatives with your repair guy to decide the best course of action. Sometimes the top of the bridge can be ‘shaved’ lower – there are times (not that many, admittedly) that this is the best alternative. Sometimes, the bellying of the top is not the result of the ageing process but an indication of loose braces. A neck reset is a relatively ‘invasive’ job and you and your repair tech should be sure before doing it.

But, in most cases, it’s usually the way to go. And, if so, this is what will happen:

The neck will be removed from the body of the guitar. On most guitars currently requiring a neck set, this means a complicated process of heating the fingerboard extension to soften the glue holding it to the guitar top and then ‘steaming’ the glued-in dovetail joint to release the neck. This process is somewhat easier on some newer guitars that use ‘bolt-on’ neck systems. Many of these are still too young to need resets but it happens.

Once off, wood is removed (using chisel, rasp, sandpaper, etc.) from the bottom of the heel. Doing so alters the angle at which the neck joins the body such that the fingerboard better follows the string plane (and its own plane hits the top of the bridge as explained above). How much wood is removed is generally calculated by entering some dimensions in a formula and/or by eye (experience counts for a lot). Personally, I usually end up using a combination of both – the formula to get me close and working by eye to get me exactly where I need to be.

Once the wood has been removed and the angle altered, the neck is reattached. It’s not just a matter of slapping glue on it joint and hoping for the best – the newly modified geometry usually requires that the joint be adjusted and shimmed.

After all that’s done, it’s sometimes necessary to either level the frets, or occasionally, to refret the neck completely. A lucky repair tech will get away without fretwork some of the time.

A neck reset is a pretty big job. You need a repair guy you can trust as it’s easy to mess up. Talk through the job with your tech and satisfy yourself that you’re leaving your guitar in good hands.

Prices can vary depending on the instrument as different manufacturers use different methods of attaching necks. Martin is one of the easier neck sets. Gibsons have some quirks that make life more difficult and they finish their guitars after the neck is glued on so they’re practically impossible to set without some paint chipping and touch-up work. If you’ve got a Guild, you’d best take a seat before you get a quote – some of them make for a nasty reset.

So then, the long and short of it, if you’ve got an acoustic that’s worth keeping, chances are it’s going to need a neck set at least once in its life. Make sure you find a good repair guy to do the job and you’ll get an easier playing instrument for quite a while into the future.

As always, shout up in the comments if you’ve any questions.

This article was brought to you by Gerry Hayes from the workshop of Haze Guitars. Haze Guitars provides instrument repair, restoration and upgrade services in Dublin, Ireland.

Continuing our Guitar 101 voyage of discovery around the guitar, we’re staying with the neck and contemplating the truss-rod.

What the hell is a truss rod anyway?

At it’s simplest, a truss rod is a device to counteract the tension of the strings. We’ll get on to looking at the different types of truss rod in a minute or two but first, lets look a little deeper into that explanation.

The strings on your guitar or bass, when tuned up to pitch, exert a lot of pressure. It’s a tall order for your guitar neck to withstand that pressure without bending under the pull of the stings as in the (rather hastily drawn) diagram below.

What you see here is a (pretty exaggerated) side view of a guitar neck under string pressure. Its natural inclination is to bend or bow. We call this ‘up-bow’ as it’s in the direction of string pull. Obviously, it’s not great to have a guitar neck that’s pulled into too much of an up-bow – it makes it more difficult to play as the middle of the bow has higher action and it’s not really good for the neck.

Enter the truss rod.

The truss-rod’s basic job is to prevent the neck from bowing (i.e. essentially, to keep it straight).

Early truss rods were simply strengthening materials inserted in the wooden neck when it was being made. This ranged from just a stronger, denser wood to add strength (like a square, ebony rod) to a length of ‘T’ shaped bar or a square bar/tube. These were better than nothing but they weren’t adjustable.

Then came the adjustable truss rod. This is a steel rod that’s inserted into a curved channel in the neck when it’s being made. One end is anchored and the other end is threaded to accept a nut. Once the neck is completed, it basically contains a curved steel rod (the curve is in the opposite direction to an up-bow by the way).

Now, this is actually quite clever – when a steel rod lives in a curved channel and has a nut tightened on its end, it tries to straighten out.

It’s this straightening of the truss rod that enables us to adjust a neck to exactly counteract the string tension.

Easy, eh?

Dual-Action

One thing that we should mention before we go are dual-action truss rods. These are becoming more common these days. These allow adjustment in both directions so that it’s possible to correct the usual up-bow and the (luckily less common) back-bow. Back-bow doesn’t happen that often and is usually caused by a truss rod that’s been tightened too much (although there are other possibilities).

Dual-action rods tend to be easier to install when the neck is being constructed as they can usually fit into a flat, rather than curved slot.  The more cynical among you might feel that this is the reason they are becoming more common rather than their ability to counteract back-bow. While that may well be the case (I know I use them for that reason), it is a nice bonus to be able to control back-bow too.

Adjustable

Most truss rods can be adjusted at the headstock-end of the neck. There’s usually a small hole or recess to allow access. Fender guitars are frequently adjusted at the body end (which is a pain as you generally need to loosen the neck screws to access it). Many acoustic truss rods have their adjustment at the body-end of the neck, accessed through the soundhole.

Fender-style Truss Rod Adjustment

Gibson-style Truss Rod Adjustment

If you interest is piqued, we’ll bring you some information on how to adjust your truss-rods soon.  Make sure you don’t miss it by subscribing to the Guitarless feed via RSS or email.

This article was brought to you by Gerry Hayes from the workshop of Haze Guitars.
Haze Guitars provides instrument repair, restoration and upgrade services in Dublin, Ireland.

A little while back, we posted an article with some information to help you spot a counterfeit Gibson guitar. For a while now, there seems to have been a bit of a glut of fake Gibsons coming from the Far East – mostly China. These guitars are pretty readily available on the net from Chinese wholesale sites.

While these instruments aren’t the worst in the world, I’d hate to think of someone being fooled.  If you want to buy what you know is a fake Les Paul, while Gibson (quite rightly) won’t approve, go right ahead – you pays your money and takes your chances. My main concern is for those who don’t know they’re buying a phony Gibson.

So, to try arm potential buyers, I’m supplementing the information (originally released by Gibson, I believe) that was mentioned in the previous article.  That information is – I think – a little out of date now and could also do with some ‘topping-up’. As I had the dubious fortune to have a Chinese Les Paul copy through my workshop recently, I thought I’d take the opportunity to get a few photographs of the fake and compare to similar photos of a genuine Les Paul.

Along the way, I’ve explained a little about what you’re seeing – I think understanding the reasoning behind the design choices of the counterfeiters can only help you in spotting a fake.  It does mean the article is a little long however. You might want to grab a coffee.

I hope this helps.

The fake Gibson image is on the left and the genuine Gibson on the right unless stated. Click each image for a larger view.

Neck wood

The majority of (although by no means all) Les Pauls have a neck that is cut from a single billet of mahogany. The neck is all one piece of wood.  While this practice contributes to the dozens of Gibsons I get through my workshop every year with broken headstocks, it’s also a big part of the Gibson ethos.

The problem for the fakers is that making necks this way is a very wasteful practice.  There’s lots of wood left over that’s of limited use.  Therefore, they tend to cut their necks from smaller billets and then glue additional wood to them to make up whatever’s missing.

Above, you can see that the fake Les Paul on the left has had its angled headstock scarfed on.  The joint between the two different pieces of wood is obvious.  One thing to note (which confuses things very slightly) is that genuine Gibsons usually have the left and right edges of the headstock glued on from a separate piece of timber (you can just see this in the image on the right).  These headstock ‘ears’ are normal and not a sign of a counterfeit Gibson.

The joint isn’t quite so obvious down at the heel-end but it is there.

Further confusing things on this jointed-neck issue is the fact that Gibson’s history is sometimes a murky, foggy place. I’ve seen Gibsons with headstocks jointed just like the fake one above. I’ve seen Les Pauls with maple necks hidden under solid colour finishes that have been made from four or five jointed pieces of timber.  A jointed neck should be considered a warning sign, however, and should make you look out for the less-obvious signs.

Neck Binding

A spanking-new Les Paul should have little binding nibs at the ends of each fret along the neck.  This is the result of the way Gibson fret their fingerboards and is a practice that isn’t followed anywhere else.  If the metal fret-ends go all the way to the edge of the binding, that’s a red flag.

It’s worth noting that, if the instrument has been refretted at some stage, most likely, this will not hold. It’s incredibly labour-intensive to retain those nibs when refretting and most people choose not to (when they hear the cost of keeping them).

Truss Rod

As mentioned in the last article, the truss-rod access used to be a giveaway for a knockoff Gibson.  Typically, it was covered with a triangular(ish) plastic cover retained by three screws rather than the genuine two-screw, bell-shaped cover.  Underneath, on the fake, was a narrow access channel rather than a wider, arch-shaped access.

Well, it seems the fakers have gotten wise to this.

This fake Les Paul has a bell-shaped cover, held in place by two screws. Underneath, it has a large access cavity.  At first glance, it looks pretty similar.  There are a couple of alarm bells ringing though.

The arrow in the fake Les Paul image on the left shows that the two screw truss-rod cover doesn’t quite fit – the fact that the screw hole is mostly air is testament to that. The truss-rod nut itself is not the right shape. While we may be getting a little geeky here, it’s very different to the more curved, ‘acorn’ shape of the original.  Lastly, between the nut and the wood of the neck, there is no ‘half-moon’ washer.  The washer is there to spread the load when tightening the nut – without it, there is a risk that this fake’s nut will just tighten into the wood of the neck.

That’s not Les Paul’s signature

It looks fine from arm’s length but take a close look at the logo on this pirate Les Paul and you can see the difference.

It doesn’t take a graphologist to tell you that one of these isn’t right.  The forgery is less graceful (for want of a better word).  The phony Les Paul logo is a consistent thickness – they haven’t been able to replicate the thick/thin, calligraphy style of the genuine logo – and looks obviously incorrect when compared to the original.

Look at the flame on that

Nigel Tufnel wouldn’t be fooled.  Take a look at the top of the dodgy Gibson.

Rather than give you a wonderfully beautiful – and wonderfully expensive – flamed maple top, the counterfeiters will save money by faking it.  A photo-finish is the method used. The flame you see in the top of the leftmost image above is not there – it’s, essentially, printed on. It looks pretty good and, to be fair, it’s a legitimate technique used on budget instruments all over the world.  There’s no problem as long as the seller doesn’t try to pretend it’s AAAAA-grade maple under that finish.

Along the edge of the top, there are places where the ‘printing’ hasn’t quite reached the edge.  You can see the flame stop before the binding.  Giveaway – but one that’s not always there so beware.

Take control

This isn’t something I’ve noticed on the Chinese Fake Les Pauls before (although it may have been there).  The volume and tone controls appear to be mounted at right-angles to the back of the guitar. Because there is a curve on the top though, this means they don’t sit quite right – closer to the wood on one edge than the other.  On the real Gibson, the controls are at right angles (more or less) to the curve.

From a tooling point of view, this makes sense on a cheap forgery and I’d be willing to bet it is consistent on lots of other Les Paul fakes.  Keep ‘em peeled.

On the case

Lastly, the guitar case.  Again, the knock-off artists have been paying attention. This fake guitar comes with a Gibsonesque hard case.  The Gibson features of this case are only skin deep though. All of these images are of the fake Gibson case, by the way.

The fake case is just a cheap, generic, hard-case that’s had a Gibson logo screen-printed on.  It’s not as sturdy as a real Gibson case.  It has a moulded rubber handle with some flimsy looking brackets to retain it.  Inside, it’s got some unpleasant nylon hairy stuff – it feels and looks cheap.  Lastly (and possibly it’s just this example) the whole exterior has a nasty, sticky feel – like some sort of lacquer covering.

Counterfeit conclusions

There are plenty of dodgy Gibson guitars out there. If you know you’re buying a fake and are happy to do so, fine – it’s not ideal, but it’s your money and conscience.  These aren’t necessarily ‘bad’ guitars but they are definitely budget guitars and they are definitely not Gibsons.

There’s far too much potential for innocent guitarists to get ripped off and, hopefully, this article will go some way towards preventing that. In conjunction with the information already out there from Gibson, this should help paint a broader picture.

It’s worth bearing in mind the provisos mentioned throughout the article – some of them, on their own, aren’t definite proof of a fake but should be sufficient to make you wary and more questioning.  Remember also, that, if buying from the internet, you may not be able to properly check all of these items.

Caveat emptor. Let the buyer beware.  It’s worth remembering the ‘if it sounds too good to be true…’ maxim.

If you’ve any questions, shout ‘em out below or drop me an email.

Spread the word

I think this is an important issue so feel free to tell your friends.  Feel absolutely free to use these images on your forums, blogs, sites, whatever.  There is a copyright notice on the larger ones but that copyright is Creative Commons (Attribution, No Derivatives).  This means that you can throw these images around wherever you want as long as you include a link back to this article and don’t alter them.

So, like I say, feel free to share this information and help prevent people getting ripped-off.

Today, in Guitar 101, we’re looking at the guitar neck.  And, this time, we’re taking considering scale length and string compensation.

Scale length

Scale length is, effectively, the ‘sounding’ length of the string – i.e. the bit that actually ‘sounds’ (or vibrates – it’s the same thing) when plucked.  This means that we’re only considering the length of string between the nut and saddle (see our article on Guitar Anatomy if you need a refresher on these terms).

Some of the common scale lengths of popular guitars and basses are:

• Many Gibson Guitars, Les Paul, SG, etc.
  24.75″ or 629mm
• Fender Stratocaster and Telecaster
  25.5″ or 648mm
• Fender Mustang and Jaguar
  24″ or 610mm
• Paul Reed Smith (mostly)
  25″ or 635mm
• Fender Precision and Jazz bass
  34″ or 864mm
• Gibson EB0 bass
  30.5″ or 775mm
• Rickenbacker 4001 bass
  32.5″ or 825mm

There are other scale lengths on other (and even these) instruments but these are the more common ones you’ll find.  As you can see, there’s quite a difference.

So it’s a bigger/smaller thing?

Yes.  Firstly, and most obviously, scale length affects the fret-spacing – i.e. the distance between each fret – as you have to fit a similar number of frets into a bigger or smaller space.

If you have small hands for example, you might appreciate playing a Fender Jaguar as the frets are not so far apart and so, you don’t have to reach so much between them.

Is that it?

Nope.  There’s a less obvious factor that needs to be considered too – string tension.

Because the scale length determines the tension a particular string must have applied to reach a given pitch, different scale length necks will feel and sound very different.

For example, the same gauge strings on that Fender Jaguar will feel different than if they were on a Strat.  The Strat’s strings will have more tension and will ‘play’ differently.  They’ll feel tighter for bending and fretting.

They’ll also sound differently (if we take the variables like pickups, body wood, etc. out of the picture).  The Strat will probably sound more ‘focussed’ and will probably sustain longer.

So what scale length do I want?

Up to you, I’m afraid.  Each has pros and cons.  Each feels and sounds different.  It may come down to hand size and finding ‘the right size’ or it may be more of a playability and ‘feel’ thing – you may prefer a slightly slacker, bend-friendly tension for instance.

My advice is to try a couple of instruments with different scale lengths.  You might find you can get on with one better than another.

A tip on measuring scale length

Because of the combined wonders of music and mathematics, the 12th fret position on your guitar or bass is exactly half the scale length.  So, if your guitar has a 25″ scale length, measuring from the nut to the centre of 12th fret (that’s the fret itself – the metal bar) should give you 12.5″.  This is actually a handy way to check scale length if you don’t have a loooong ruler or measure.

Which brings us to:

String Compensation

If measuring the full scale length (i.e. the full length – not just to the 12th fret as mentioned in the shortcut-tip above) we usually measure at the top-E string.  That’s because this string is the thinnest and requires the least amount of string compensation.  This string is, therefore, closer to the actual scale length of the instrument. The other strings are generally compensated which means they’re actually slightly longer than the scale length.

What’s compensation?

Great question.

When you fret a string somewhere along the fretboard, you actually sharpen that string’s pitch by a tiny amount. To compensate for this, each string is made a little bit longer than the instrument’s actual scale length, thereby ‘flattening’ its pitch.  The amount that each string is made longer (flattened) depends on that strings size – thin strings not much and getting progressively more as the strings get thicker.  Clever, eh?

To nicely illustrate it, this is why acoustic saddles are angled – the sounding length of the thicker, wound strings is actually longer than that of the thinner strings.

Many guitars have adjustable bridges and/or string saddles to allow each string’s compensation be accurately set.  Setting the compensation is referred to as ‘intonating‘ the instrument and the compensation overall can be called ‘intonation‘.  More about that another time – it’s a whole other kettle of piscine-like creatures.

As always, if you’ve any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments.

While there is a massive chunk of the this site’s audience already very familiar with what each bit of a guitar is, this article is really aimed at those who might be just starting their guitar journey (or even just thinking about it).

This first article in Guitar 101 is a primer (or a refresher if you want to do a little revision) to ensure we all know the basics before we start moving on to look, in more detail, at all of the bits of a guitar.  For that reason, some of you may want to gloss over or skip this article.  Feel free to do so – it’s to get everyone to the same starting point before moving on (and it’ll still be here later should you ever feel the need to go back).

Lets start at the very beginning – What is a guitar?

A guitar (or bass – I’ll use guitar as an umbrella term, though) is essentially a device for amplifying the sound of a strings vibration.  In a nutshell, that’s all a guitar does – it amplifies (either through an electric guitar’s pickups or an acoustic guitar’s sound box) the sound of the vibrating string.

Now, of course, it also provides a means to tune that string and a means to selectively change the pitch of that string (by fretting) thereby allowing different notes be played.

The parts of an electric guitar

Despite different shapes and sizes, guitars generally share a standard set of characteristics.

In the image above you can see that despite minor differences, the two guitars are essentially based on the same principles.  We’ll take a quick overview of these principles below – don’t worry if we don’t explain all the terms now, we’ll be covering it in more detail later on.

How a guitar actually works

The guitar’s strings are anchored at each end.  At the top they’re anchored to tuners which allow the string tension be varied, thereby ‘tuning’ the string to the pitch required.  At the body end, the strings anchor in a bridge or tailpiece (and sometimes through the body itself).

Between these two anchor points, the string passes over two points: the nut (at the end of the neck) and the saddle (the saddle is the string contact point at the bridge).  The distance between these two points is the ‘scale length‘ of a guitar.  Many saddles/bridges are adjustable to allow for string-length compensation.

The pitch of any string can be changed by fretting it against the fingerboard with a finger.  Frets are thin metal bars installed in the fretboard at precise positions to ensure accurate pitch.

The sound of an electric guitar is generally amplified electronically.  The pickups sense the strings’ vibration and convert it to a small electric current.  This travels down your guitar cable/lead to an amplifier where it’s turned into a bigger current – one sufficient to drive a speaker.

The parts of an acoustic guitar

Acoustic guitars are pretty much the same.

The strings are anchored at the body end – through holes in the bridge and top – with bridge-pins.

In most cases, the acoustic guitar saddle is not adjustable for compensation.  The saddle is generally made from the same material as the nut (often bone, or a plastic).

In the case of an acoustic guitar the string’s vibration causes the guitar’s top to vibrate too. This moves the air inside the guitar body (or soundbox) which is what causes the sound to be ‘amplified’ or made louder. The moving air comes out through the soundhole and the listener hears it.

Over the coming weeks, Guitar 101 will take a closer look at many of the component parts of a guitar and examine what they do and why they’re there.  We hope to give you an understanding of why a guitar is the way it is and how it works.  Guitar 101 will provide some of the theory behind the practical parts of our upcoming Guitar Setup articles.

Gibson tell us of a recent upsurge in fake and counterfeit Gibson guitars for sale – many of which are sold from Chinese wholesale sites like TradeTang.com, DHGate.com and MadeInChina.com (although this is, by no means, an exclusive list).

You can see such ‘bargains’ as a Les Paul Supreme for $297 or an Dot Reissue 335 for $346.

If only…

Remember, if it seems to good to be true, it probably is.  However, some information to (maybe) help in spotting a fake Gibson follows:

There seem to be a few things that the fakers get wrong frequently (although don’t bank on it).

• The truss rod cover should be bell-shaped and have two screws – NOT three.
• The Les Paul script should always be in cursive.
• A vertical ‘Gibson’ on the truss-rod cover is a bad sign.
• Check that the pickup cavity is not painted black inside – if it is it could be a fake.
• Check the routing of the pickup and control cavities – it should be neat and tidy.
• Ditto the wiring – make sure it’s tidy and well executed.
• If the wiring is insulated with plastic, it’s possibly dodgy – Gibson use cloth covered wiring and braided shielding.
• Ensure it comes with a Gibson Owner’s Manual and Gibson Warranty Card.
• Pay close attention the the headstock and logo.
• Ensure it comes with a Gibson hard-case – fakes often don’t come with cases or with generic ones.
• If it’s noted as made in China or the far east, it’s not a Gibson.
• Try contacting Gibson customer service at service@gibson.com or by calling 1-800-4GIBSON (in the US)

There are some images below to help you spot a fake Gibson.  These came originally from Gibson themselves and they should be of use in determining authenticity.