Strings Choking

cdhopkin1977 · August 6th, 2008, 11:39 AM

Hey Guys,

I've put together a new partsacaster, the body is a Sunburst Highway 1 that I got from Ebay (Stratosphere) and the neck/bridge are from a '95 MIM Contemporary Strat (apparently they were called Strat Specials in the US).

The neck hasn't been strung for a month or so and has been kept in our converted loft.

I've string the guitar up with 9s and it's a little muted/buzzy in the lower frets. I'm getting instant chokeout above the 12th fret but can bend up on the 21st fret.

The neck hasn't been shimmed and the action is fine.

Am I looking at backbow or do I just need to add a shim? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks

Chris

asc67 · August 6th, 2008, 12:45 PM

Have you adjusted the truss rod for good neck relief ?

jmasin · August 6th, 2008, 01:16 PM

Have you measured the relief? You say the action is "fine", what is the action? how is it from low-fret to high-fret?

Even if it is back-bow this should be apparent in the action. Noting out is from a string that is too low (or a fret that is too high) regardless of why it may be too low.

I suggest you measure the action and relief, and if there is zero relief use a straightedge on the neck to determine if there is in fact back bow (or sight it by eye).

cdhopkin1977 · August 6th, 2008, 04:18 PM

I've gone down our local auto parts place (Halfords for all the Brits and Anglophiles) and got some feeler guages. Will be be comandeering the kitchen table tomorrow to do all the measurements.

cdhopkin1977 · August 7th, 2008, 08:26 AM

I've had a look at it with a feeler guage. The relief at the 8th fret was more than 0.25mm so I've tightened the truss rod a tiny bit. It appears to be an issue with the action. I'm going to adjust it a little and check it again.

cdhopkin1977 · August 12th, 2008, 12:18 AM

I adjusted the action up a little and it's playing great now

jmasin · August 12th, 2008, 09:00 AM

Good to hear you got it resolved!

thaus · August 12th, 2008, 11:01 AM

I was going to suggest you look at the frets, maybe could use a crown or leveling. I had the same problem on one guitar a while back and had the frets leveled and crowned and it played great after.............but you solved your problem! Congrats........

aznrambo481 · August 12th, 2008, 01:57 PM

good to hear it worked! I've noticed that on some necks, if you don't loosen the truss rod and you remove it from the body, it can have quite the back-bow when you put it on. Takes a while for the neck to readjust to the string tension.