Oops. I ‘fess up and say that I have to take you back a couple of steps because I forgot to mention something. Sorry about this. It’s the drawback of not spending enough time plotting out these emails in advance.
I should have discussed some measurements earlier on. Apologies. I suspect that very few readers have been performing neck resets in real-time over the last month as my emails come in. Still, this was an oversight. Sorry.
It’s entirely possible to reset a neck completely by eye, taking off a little, checking, taking off a little more. No problem. I’ve done it plenty and for less severe angle adjustments, it’s probably the best way to go anyway.
Vintage Gibson Dove
But… It can speed things a little if there’s a measurement you’re working towards. If you have an idea of how much the neck should be adjusted in order to achieve your optimum angle.
Before I continue, I must give credit where it’s due. I learned this super handy formula from Dan Erlewine’s Neck Resets video. That link will get you a new-fangled “D.V.D.” version but it was all VHS and mullets when I first saw this as a fresh-faced young man. As always, Dan deserves credit for putting me —and a whole heap of repairers —on the right track (about the guitar stuff, not the mullet).
If I hold a long straight edge along the tops of the frets, so the end butts against the bridge, this indicates how much the neck is underset. Remembering our perfect neck set angle, the straight edge
Neck Reset / Replace
An underset neck will contact the bridge some distance below the top. This difference is what we want to measure for (A). It’s a little tricky to do this with only one pair of hands but it’s not too bad.
Once we have our three measurements (and this is one job that’s definitely easier in millimetres, by the way), you can plug them into this formula:
Remember that we’re removing a wedge-shaped portion from the heel in order to alter the neck angle. X is the amount that is removed at the bottom and that should taper to zero as you approach the fingerboard.
How To Restore Acoustic Guitar
P.S. Not sure why it took me so long to think of it but, only last year, I realised life could be easier by building this into a spreadsheet. I have a computer right here in the workshop so I made a very simple Reset Calculator in Google Sheets.
There’s a cell for each of the three measurements and then the answer is calculated for me. Easy. The formula is shown in the image but it’s the same as above, just substituting the correct cell values.
We have the neck angle dialled in on our neck reset but we still have some work to get that neck juuuust right.
Neck Press For Guitars With Dowel Joint Neck Attachment
The bulk of the angle change has been done. Now we need to get it finalised and ensure the neck-to-body fit is good.
A confession on my part: I should have told you to do this part FIRST. Sorry. Measurements for getting the right amount of neck angle change during a neck reset.I’d just started writing something about resetting necks on a particular guitar brand when it occurred to me that I hadn’t discussed neck resets in any detail for ages and I don’t think I’ve emailed about the subject. So, before we get into anything specific, let’s check out some higher level stuff.
We’re mostly going to be talking about acoustic guitars here. While it’s sometimes required to reset an electric guitar neck, it’s relatively rare. Acoustics, on the other hand: not so rare.
Neck Reset • O'brien Guitars
Over time, string tension can really stress out your acoustic. Tops can belly a little, shoulders and sound holes can sink slightly, sides and neck blocks can give a bit. The years and the tension can pull it out of shape (just like the years and tension can pull
One visible effect is that the action starts to sneak higher over time. So, naturally, we address that and lower the saddle to make the guitar more comfortable to play. Time passes, seasons come and go, we play the guitar and one day realise that the action is a bit high for comfort again. That’s fine. We shave another bit of that saddle and carry on but, before we know it, the cat’s in the cradle and the damn saddle is too low to shave any further. We’ve run out of saddle wiggle room but the action’s grown too high again.
A reset is a way to save a guitar and make it play comfortably again. It’s both a terribly simple and fantastically clever concept all at once and I have massive respect for the people that did the hard work of figuring this out and telling the rest of us. Shoulders of giants, here.
Little Bit Of Advice On Diy Neck Reset 1988(ish) Sigma Dr 2
To understand the concept, we can imagine that the neck is ‘hinged’ where it meets the body. If we pivot the neck here, the angle it joins the body changes. The neck leans back and the side-effect is that the plane of the stings now lies closer to the fingerboard.
In the image, the line A-P represents the fingerboard of the guitar. The line A-B represents the string. As you can see, the action’s pretty high. 😉
If point A angles back (pivoting at point P where the neck joins the body), you can see what happens. Point B hasn’t moved and neither has point P (it’s just the pivot). So, for the same saddle height, angling the neck back has allowed us to get a much lower action.
How Often Guitar Necks Need Reset? Answered & Explained!
Of course, it’s really only the concept that’s simple. The actual work of performing a neck reset can be a little more involved. We’ll leave that until next time, though.
No. Probably not. Most of them? Yeah, that’s more likely. I’ve long said that, if you have pretty much any steel string guitar long enough, you’ll probably have to consider a neck reset but it’s not all of them. More lightly built guitars will hold up to the strain less well that something that’s built like a WWI tank.
Regarding the age thing, I should mention that it’s possible that a guitar will occasionally leave the factory with an underset neck. It’ll have less headroom for lowering the action than it should. I had a beautiful (and expensive) guitar in the workshop a couple of months ago that, brand new, had higher action and nowhere to go with it.
How To Setup Your Guitar After Neck Replacement
These cases, although reasonably rare, do happen. When they do, your first port of call will probably be to the retailer, distributor, or maker. A neck reset on a sixty-year old guitar isn’t going to be a warranty issue but if you’ve a brand new guitar with an underset neck, well, that’s a different matter.
Even if it’s something you reckon you can live with right now, remember that the same stresses will apply to the guitar over time and it already has a head-start. Its longevity is impacted and the elapsed time before it will absolutely require a neck reset is going to be shorter.
Neck resets are generally pretty involved and are not inexpensive. If you can get it sorted as a warranty repair, you’ll probably want to do so.
Bought A Cheap Guitar From An Op Shop. Neck Reset?
Well, if your guitar saddle can’t be taken lower without badly impacting break-angle, but your action is still too high for comfort, that’s a reasonable initial indication.
You can perform a slightly more concrete test too. In a well-set guitar, an imaginary line along the tops of the frets (we'll call it the 'fret-plane') will hit the bridge right at its top edge. The blue line in the graphic below shows what I mean.
Lay a long straight-edge along the frets and check where its end contacts the bridge. If the contact point is significantly lower than the bridge top, it might be worth talking to a good tech. If you don’t have a straight-edge long enough, you can sight along the neck from the headstock. You should be able to tell whether the fret-plane line hits below the top of the bridge.
Martin Guitar Neck Reset
You can get a good idea of the fret plane by sighting down the neck. This is the same guitar as the image above.
We have the neck angle dialled in on our neck reset but we still have some work to get that neck juuuust right.
The bulk of the angle change has been done. Now we need to get it finalised and ensure the neck-to-body fit is good.
Gibson J 50 Neck Reset — Chubbuck Guitars :: Making & Repairing Guitars In A Old Building Just North Of Boston, Mass
A confession on my part: I should have told you to do this part FIRST. Sorry. Measurements for getting the right amount of neck angle change during a neck reset.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.
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
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