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Hi everyone,

I'm repairing a Giannini Supersonic guitar, and I'm having problems with the strings' height. I´ve already adjusted the new nut, and it seems to be in good shape. But with the strings on and pressed, I have a lot of fret buzz all along the neck. The main problem is that I can´t get more neck relief - the trus rod are completely loosed. The neck with this configuration seems almost straight. I´ve tried to adjust the bridge and the saddles, but the action goes to an unwanted height for no fret buzz.

Any ideas for correct this issue? I´ve recently repair all the frets, leveling and polishing them. Hope that this wasn't the begining of my problems.

You should post pictures so the set-up experts can advise you. All that said, I'd hazard a guess right now that the string slots in the new nut are not in the good shape you believe them to be. Or the fret board is not as flat as you believe it to be. But I am not an expert by any means. I hope someone will chime in and give you useful advice. In the meantime, please post photos.

Start by measuring everything the way it currently stands (you actually should have done this before you started) and posting that. Neck relief at 7 or 8, action at 12 on all strings, and first fret action.

There are lots of ways to do this - here is mine. I measure everything and write it down. Take out all the relief if possible and level/crown/polish the frets. If you can't get the relief out at least rock each three frets and level high ones.

Once the frets are good, decide how much relief you want and adjust that - Gibson and Finder have fairly high numbers (0.008 to 0.012 or so). Lots of us like much lower - 2 or 4 thou is my goal on an electric.

Next I do the nut slots - again, the goal is the zero fretline but you can also use first fret clearance and/or next fret clearance with a capo on each fret.

Next I do the saddle height/12th fret action, followed by checking intonation and finally setting the pickups.

Lets hear your numbers and we'll take it from there.

First, I must thank you guys for the help.

Ok, I took some pictures. Also, I walk by the steps proposed by Freeman. Here's some results from the measurements:

Neck relief at 8th fret: .009 - .010 inches (measured with a filler gauge);
Action at 12th fret: ~1,5mm or 1/16 inches.
Action at first fret: ~0,5mm or 1/64 inches.

Those two last measurements were done by a not so trustfull ruler, so the numbers are approximate.

Also I've checked that with the capo at first position, inspite all strings buzzed, the effect is more apparent on A and D.

I usually solve this issue with truss rod adjustment, but again, it isn´t possible to get more neck relief.

I´m having some problems uploading the pictures.

You have to resize the pics to be smaller than 150KB I think, that's the most common problem that people have. There are on-line photo editors that will do this for you just Google them.

Here's a basic guide, checklist for you to guitar set-up. Skip any of these steps and something may bite you..... Trust me I know, I set up more guitars than I care to every single day....

1) Check the frets. Are any loose?

2) Adjust the relief in the ball park.

3) Check and cut the nut slots. This is an art and something that takes LOTS of experience to do very well. Lots of folks can succeed in getting close though but go one swipe too far and you just blew the nut. Many makers cut the slots way too high which makes the thing way harder to play than it needs to be.

4) Once the variable of relief and the nut slot depth is taken out of play concentrate on:

5) The action, set it to your desired setting then play every single note on the string and play it resoundingly as well taking into account other players who may be more ham handed than you. If no rattling or buzzing and the action is where you want it move on to another string and repeat the process. A guitar like this one should be capable of action of 4 and >4 meaning 64th of an inch always measured at the 12th fret. The high e number comes first as well meaning that we express action as in this case 4 and >4 meaning the high e is 4/64th" and the low e is greater than 4/64th" but less than 5/64th".

6) Once all of the strings have an acceptable action, no buzzing, nut slots are cool and relief is decent then we do the intonation for each individual string making them longer (use the adjustable saddles) when the fretted 12th is sharp over the 12th overtone. Make the string shorter if the fretted 12th is flat.

Do all of this intonation and action setting in the playing position it makes a difference and there are things out here called rubber necked guitars that will be impacted by gravity.

One of the most common reasons that a guitar set-up is limited is poor fret work that needs a) the frets secured and b) the frets leveled, recrowned, polished. Other common limitations to proper set-ups are with Fender style bolt on necks. They often develop a ski ramp over the body and these high frets interfere with getting lower action. The frets on the extension can be milled downed and dressed as well but that is part of a fret dress and a different subject.

Hope that something here helps and let me know if you have any questions?

1) Well, it seems that the fretwork I done went very good. At least with the neck straight there are no losses by checking with a ruler.

2) So, walking by the steps you suggested, the next would be the neck relief. And here is the point I think that it's the trouble one: I can´t get no more loose than the strictly straight.

3) Well, supposing straightness is what I´m looking for the neck relief, than comes the nut slots. Yes, I realized that there is no piece of cake on modeling these little demons. And yes, I made a hundred of them until got an "ok" one. Anyway, looking for a comparison, I placed the old nut, and two curious things happened: first, there´s buzz in both E strings. It´s curious because with the fretwork, the frets got down, suggesting again that there is a neck relief problem, am I right? Second, the fact that the buzzes occurs only on the end strings (both E) suggests that the fretwork did not followed the neck curvature. What you can say about it?

Guess I need to make those questions cleared before go on, am I right? Thank you for the help! Hope to get in somewhere satisfactory!

By the way, sorry for my poor english.

Some photos:

Hi Rodolfo - Is the neck straight with no string on it? If so some relief will be created by string tension usually....

There is a popular tool out here called the "fret rocker" and this tool has the whole world placing either the fret rocker tool or something else on three frets and if there is no rock folks believe that all is well. This is not the case at times and as such the fret rocker for me has little more value than something to tap the frets with to hear if they are loose. You can throw them accross the room at other Luthiers too....

So what I'm getting at is that it's impossible for any of us to know what you have fret wise from checking for rocking with something. This is another reason why I don't like this tool because if folks get no rock they develop a false sense of security that the fret work is cool.

The buzzing on the two e strings is this when the strings are open - if so the nut slots are too low (or there is back bow in the neck).

Fret work is also an art... and what most people think is fine usually won't cut it in the world of demanding pro players and the expectations of professional Luthier results. The fret plane needs to be viewed as the strings see it and the strings are a natural straight edge by the way.

Anyway let's back up a bit and make sure that I understand the issues correctly.

So is the neck perfectly straight under string tension or without strings?

Do the e strings buzz open?

What's the action measured at the 12th for both the high and low e strings?

When you fret each string between the second and third fret and observe the distance between the string and the top of the crown of the first fret what do you see? No space, some space and how much?

Answer these questions and it will help me help you.

Thanks.