How To Check A Guitar Necks Straightness
Here’s a question frequently asked by beginners looking to buy a new guitar. ” How do I check the guitar neck for straightness?”
Firstly, you’ll want to play with the guitar to get the feel of the action and check the clearance between the fret and the bottom of the strings. Do this for the 1st and 12th frets. If you don’t get enough clearance, you’ll end up with fret-buzz.
To check for any twisting of the neck, place the guitar face up and have the bottom rest on the floor while you support the guitar by the peg head. You’ll want to look down the neck with it pointing directly at you. Look at the left and right side of the guitar using the low E and high E strings as guidelines.
If there is a twist present, you will notice that the peg head dips in the direction of a twist. It’s best to get a guitar with very minimal twisting.
Next hold the guitar in playing position and look down the side of the neck for straightness & relief. Look at the spacing between the bass string and fret. Is there a dip ( relief ) somewhere in the middle of the neck ( check around the 7th fret )?
You will need a certain amount of relief to avoid fret buzzing. If you have a bow in the neck in the opposite direction, most likely any note you play is going to buzz like crazy. This can be fixed by adjusting the truss rod. If you don’t know how to do this, let me know and I’ll post some quick instructions.
In the meantime, get a sales person at the guitar shop to adjust the guitar neck relief for you before you purchase the guitar.
photo credit: gregoryjameswalsh
So when the strings buzz ,is common to tighten or loosen up the truss rod?
Hi Scott,
Thanks for stopping by man. Usually when the string buzzes on my guitars, it happens around the 14th fret and down from there. There might be two causes:
1. Your bridge might be too low and contacting the frets, hence the fret buzz.
2. The neck of your guitar is warped (twisted or bent).
In case #2, if it is twisted, the guitar I’d say is a lemon. There’s little you can do to remedy the situation.
If the neck is bent, you should check the straightness by “sighting”, check one of my tutorials here in how to check the straightness of your guitar’s neck.
If this is the case, tighten your truss rod a fraction and test it out.
Mark