Guitar Neck Relief - How straight should a guitar neck be?

[@mst646]

The first minute of the video made me smile, I've never thought of/seen a guitar that way! Got yourself a new subscriber.

[@jeffwaltonbooks894]

Barry, I don’t have skills in guitar repair - particularly neck and bridge adjustments- but I found your video to be very informative and practical. I am returning to bass playing after many decades away from the art, and your explanation was very helpful in my evaluating the neck of my bass. I will be consulting a local luthier, but I feel much better prepared to have an intelligent conversation with him. Thank you for your excellent presentation.

[@alseveron6558]

This is one of the best explanations of neck relief I've seen. With a neck that's dead straight after the instrument is strung and tuned up, the clearance between the string and the fret above another one that's fretted (e.g. with a finger) gets increasingly small towards the nut end of the neck (basic geometry). Neck relief helps to reduce this effect, and it's very convenient that necks typically bow more at the thinner end, which is where the bow/relief is most needed.

[@scobiepuchtler7723]

Barry, Scobie from Seattle here. DH shared this video with me recently. This was a lot of fun to watch and reminded me of the first time you clarified so much neck geometry for me over the phone, in preparation for our bass-building project. I remain honored to have had that and all other lessons from you. In this KZbin presentation, I followed all of it.... right up until you started using your short Starrett to begin indicating an actual >reverse< in the relief curve as you began approaching the body of the guitar. Why on earth would convexity anywhere on the frets be desirable, however subtle? Wouldn't you want the neck to simply stop curving (having relief) as it approaches the body? Perhaps your explanation here is meant to address why one might want the relief curve to fully reverse, but if it does, I've missed it.

[@barrylipman442]

Good question… really! You’d think the relief would continue to diminish out to the end of the board, or maybe go dead straight, but neither option works as well as a bit of fall-off. Any rise or bow after the twelfth fret out towards the end I call a ski-jump. On electric guitars that tends to cause fretting out on bent upper notes on the high E and the B strings, as well as a “slappy” sound with poor sustain on the higher notes. On basses and acoustic guitars, where bending is usually not much of an issue, it just makes the notes slappy. Given the tendency for fretboards to increase in bow over time from string tension, there should be a drop off to pre-empt any ski-jump.

[@MurilloNadal]

This video is amazing! Thank you so much! Regards from Brazil

[@barrylipman442]

Thanks for commenting! Much appreciated.

[@stevepelham9010]

As straight is so much in favor manufactors know tends to ship them necks straight, dead straight. I recently got three of them straight set guitars and all three came as backbowed. A high action and the neck set dead straight, there is a of lot of tension pulling on that guitar. These guitars are affordable so the truss goes with it, the neck trembels and to escape, it pops uppwards! That is hell.

[@djb3545]

Nice video. Do you think greater than 4/64 is needed on base side if you play more aggressively?

[@barrylipman442]

Of course. 4 by 3/64” is a pretty normal electric guitar action, but more aggressive players tend to prefer higher actions. As it is said, “Your mileage may vary.”

[@HarryCollins99]

Maybe this video is helpful to a person that already has a fair amount of knowledge about these things, but if you are like me, and you don't know anything about guitar setup, there is not enough information here to be helpful. The arena seating metaphor does not illuminate the situation. What exactly should the relationship between the fret and the bridge be? After watching your video, I don't know. You did not even take a moment to define and describe neck relief, which is the reason that I watched your video in the first place. In fact, you did not even mention neck relief until halfway through the video, and still it was not defined. I leave knowing nothing more than I knew before. As a teacher, assuming your students know more than they do negates the value of your teaching. I do appreciate you taking the time to make the video.

[@rodnyg7952]

oh my, I've been repairing stringed instruments for over 40yrs, and you seem to be confusing a very simple thing as neck relief with little narratives and anecdote. Very simply, relief is how straight your neck is. Typically, guitars are set-up to be very close to perfectly flat, but with a little bit of relief (slightly concave). The rest is simply how to achieve this

[@johnjonesToffeeman]

I just posted exactly the same thing. I never had a problem if the bow is barley visible but still there it is fine. If you need to adjust more look at the saddles and then the nut

[@rodnyg7952]

@@johnjonesToffeeman yes it's a process of truss rod adjustment, then saddle & nut height in order to find some ideal relief to fit your particular comfort on a fretboard. Any ideal setup can vary depending on ones playing style, string gauge, humidity, ect.. In some cases shims or a neck reset may be required as well

[@johnjonesToffeeman]

So the people in the audience who pay more are more important so they are the frets near to the neck? Who is on the stage?