Hello everyone one,
I want some help to set my guitar just right,
And please do not tell me to take my guitar to a tech because there's no guitar techs where I live, not even in a 3000 km radius.
So the thing is that I recently felt that my Lefty Ibanez Prestige RG655 plays a little bit difficult on the high frets, says from 19th - 24th frets and by difficult I mean that the strings seem to have a high action around those frets.
So I decided to make some measurements for that Super wizard HP neck and compare it to recommended measures which noted in the guitar manual that came with the instrument. Also please note that all the measurements that I did were done as instructed in the guitar manual.
Before I started to check the intonation and string action and neck bow, I decided to remove the (ESP arming adjuster) which I installed a on my guitar for more than a two years now and had to readjust the spring tension and the trem angle, and let the guitar settle for two weeks.
View attachment 11425
Also note that all the measurements where done several time during different time while a let the guitar to set and nothing actually changed.
So here's the check up that I did :
At first I check the intonation of the guitar, I tuned precisely, checked the intonation and I could say that it was almost perfect and non of the checked notes seemed to be flatter or sharper than they should be.
Secondly I measured the Action on the Fourteenth fret as Recommended on the manual and it was as follows :
- High E 1st string = 2.0 mm as shown on the pic, while in the manual it is stated that the action on the 1st string at the Fourteenth fret should be (1.5- 1.7 mm)
View attachment 11427
- For the low E 6th string the action was about 2.6 mm (pic attached), where in the manual it was stated that it should be (2.0 - 2.2)
View attachment 11429
According to what I know that before you start adjusting the guitar action by adjusting the floating trem stud bolts (I have the Edge tremolo btw) I have to make sure that my neck is not bowing than what it should be in either direction so the third thing I checked was the Neck Curvature
The instructional in the manual says to fret the first fret ( I used a capo) and fretted the 18th fret with my finger and the recommended distance between the bottom of the string and the 8th fret, should be around (0.3 - 0.5 mm).
In my case it was hard to see a clear gab, and to make sure I did the business card test, I took a card (of a 0.5 mm thickness) and slipped it right between the string and the 8th fret, and I could say that the string was raised slightly but not too much, and I can confirm that there was no way to slip the card without causing the string to raise. Here's some pics below shows the distance between the 8th fret and both of the 1st and 6th E strings
View attachment 11431
View attachment 11433
So in my humble knowledge I can say that I have a slight backward bow even though I hear a very little buzzing when I play the guitar acousticly but nothing too serious and when I play the guitar plugged in I don't hear anything wrong or any buzzing at all.
So I'm thinking to make a small tiny adjustment ( a couple of quarter turns) to the truss rod and let the guitar set and recheck the neck curvature.
Once that gets done and I get the recommended neck curve I will check the string action and make any adjustment if needed through the stud bolts and finally reinstall the (ESP arming) adjuster.
The reason I wanted to share this is to get your thoughts and Ideas, or you might recommend any other methods to make the measurements before I adjust the truss rod, or you might even correct me if I have any misunderstandings.
Thanks
I want some help to set my guitar just right,
And please do not tell me to take my guitar to a tech because there's no guitar techs where I live, not even in a 3000 km radius.
So the thing is that I recently felt that my Lefty Ibanez Prestige RG655 plays a little bit difficult on the high frets, says from 19th - 24th frets and by difficult I mean that the strings seem to have a high action around those frets.
So I decided to make some measurements for that Super wizard HP neck and compare it to recommended measures which noted in the guitar manual that came with the instrument. Also please note that all the measurements that I did were done as instructed in the guitar manual.
Before I started to check the intonation and string action and neck bow, I decided to remove the (ESP arming adjuster) which I installed a on my guitar for more than a two years now and had to readjust the spring tension and the trem angle, and let the guitar settle for two weeks.
View attachment 11425
Also note that all the measurements where done several time during different time while a let the guitar to set and nothing actually changed.
So here's the check up that I did :
At first I check the intonation of the guitar, I tuned precisely, checked the intonation and I could say that it was almost perfect and non of the checked notes seemed to be flatter or sharper than they should be.
Secondly I measured the Action on the Fourteenth fret as Recommended on the manual and it was as follows :
- High E 1st string = 2.0 mm as shown on the pic, while in the manual it is stated that the action on the 1st string at the Fourteenth fret should be (1.5- 1.7 mm)
View attachment 11427
- For the low E 6th string the action was about 2.6 mm (pic attached), where in the manual it was stated that it should be (2.0 - 2.2)
View attachment 11429
According to what I know that before you start adjusting the guitar action by adjusting the floating trem stud bolts (I have the Edge tremolo btw) I have to make sure that my neck is not bowing than what it should be in either direction so the third thing I checked was the Neck Curvature
The instructional in the manual says to fret the first fret ( I used a capo) and fretted the 18th fret with my finger and the recommended distance between the bottom of the string and the 8th fret, should be around (0.3 - 0.5 mm).
In my case it was hard to see a clear gab, and to make sure I did the business card test, I took a card (of a 0.5 mm thickness) and slipped it right between the string and the 8th fret, and I could say that the string was raised slightly but not too much, and I can confirm that there was no way to slip the card without causing the string to raise. Here's some pics below shows the distance between the 8th fret and both of the 1st and 6th E strings
View attachment 11431
View attachment 11433
So in my humble knowledge I can say that I have a slight backward bow even though I hear a very little buzzing when I play the guitar acousticly but nothing too serious and when I play the guitar plugged in I don't hear anything wrong or any buzzing at all.
So I'm thinking to make a small tiny adjustment ( a couple of quarter turns) to the truss rod and let the guitar set and recheck the neck curvature.
Once that gets done and I get the recommended neck curve I will check the string action and make any adjustment if needed through the stud bolts and finally reinstall the (ESP arming) adjuster.
The reason I wanted to share this is to get your thoughts and Ideas, or you might recommend any other methods to make the measurements before I adjust the truss rod, or you might even correct me if I have any misunderstandings.
Thanks
