As we step into the world of guitar set ups, our first task is to explain what neck relief is and why you would need to adjust it. Luckily, we have James Collins and our resident gear head, Chris, with us to guide you through the process!
Neck relief is essentially a measure of how much your neck bends. When you string up your guitar, the tension of the strings pulls the neck upwards. To counteract this pull, the neck has a truss rod in it that essentially pulls the neck back down. When we talk about neck relief we talk about balancing these two opposing forces to get a neck straightness that suits your playing.
Depending on how you play the guitar, and what style you play, you will want differing amounts of neck relief. You can adjust the amount of relief in the neck by adjusting the truss rod. As we get into the next videos, we will show you exactly how to adjust the trust rod, but here are the basic rules to follow when adjusting the truss rod:
Tightening the truss rod makes it pull against the strings with more force and therefore straightens the neck, whilst loosening the truss rod allows the string to pull more therefore curving the neck
To get yourself ready for adjusting the truss rod, be sure that you have strung up your guitar with the exact gauge string you want to use, and then tuned it up. You then need to decide how you will be playing the guitar! Have a listen to James' examples within the video and decide if you think you need to play all 22 frets quickly, or just want to strum some big chords. Your answer to these questions will allow you to adjust the neck relief correctly.
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Now we have established the basic idea of neck relief, James and Chris will walk through exactly how you adjust the neck relief on a fender style guitar. Adjusting the truss rod is something people are often worried to do, but it is really very simple.