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Old 10-14-2009, 08:15 AM
ewalling ewalling is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by devellis View Post
For the former, sighting down the fingerboard to see where your line of sight falls on the bridge is a good quick check. (First, make sure that the instrument is tuned up to pitch. Slack strings can hide a multitude of issues.) Ideally, when you line up the two ends of the fingerboard in your line of sight, the top edge of the bridge should be visible beyond them, in the same line of sight. If your line of sight falls just a bit below the top edge, probably not too big a deal. If it's well below the top edge, the neck will need a reset. It's also worth checking the saddle height to see if the action has already been lowered by shaving the saddle. A neck reset is roughly a few hundred dollars, depending on the guitar.
+1. You can adjust the action, dress the frets, have a set-up, but if you have to reset the neck you're talking big bucks. I recently nearly bought a guitar whose neck had been pulled forward so that no amount of truss rod adjustment or saddle shaving could have saved it. Just run a staright edge along the frets towards the saddle. If the straight edge hits below the top of the black saddle, it needs a reset (unless it hits the black part just a tiny fraction below).
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