Measure Neck Relief

Place a capo on the first fret then use your finger to fret the e string uppermost string closest to where the neck deepens to join the body.

Measure neck relief. The fretted string will create a straight line or plane. Adjusting your guitar s neck relief the amount of bow and resistance in the neck may sound like a scary proposition to the first timer but this task is something you can definitely do yourself if you take it slow and work in very small increments. Most quality guitar manufacturers supply the correct tool for adjusting neck. Measuring the amount of relief i e intentional fore bow to provide room for a vibrating string in a neck can be tricky.

Neck relief clip begins at 07 11 humidity changes can throw a neck out of whack pretty quickly causing too much forward bow relief or back bow. 7 25 9 5 12 15 17 relief 014 0 35 mm 012 0 3 mm 010 0 25 mm should you measure no relief at all or relief amounts in excess of those listed here you probably need to have the truss rod adjusted. Relief is measured by placing a capo at the first fret pressing down on the string at the last fret with your left hand or right hand if you re left handed and then measuring the gap between the bottom of the high e string and the top of the fret not the. Basically the neck relief is the curve along the full length of the neck.

Although there really isn t anything unduly difficult about most minor truss rod adjustments for our purposes. I suggest using a light with a built in magnifier. Measure current neck relief. Before you adjust the truss rod you need to assess the neck s current state.