This is spot-on. The neck relief is what I always check first. I also like a neck that is almost dead straight. If the relief is how I like it, i know that I won’t have to do much with anything else.

Theres a reason they come with an allen wrench

Right on man it's absolutely ridiculous how much media influences people into thinking that they need stuff or need to do stuff that they don't need to do

I have to adjust all my guitars relief twice a year. Everything else was adjusted once. Spot on video.

I just went through this with a new to me Knaggs. I was going crazy chasing intonation and action height and one saddle was maxed out in one direction and wasn't in tune. I wound up adjusting the neck and normalizing the bridge height and it's now perfectly intonation and plays better than ever. Spent 2 days on a 2 minute fix. Thanks for sharing Dylan!

This supports the order of operations when checking the setup of a guitar. 1. Chosen string gauge at the chosen pitch. 2. Truss rod adjusted to have chosen relief for #1. After these 2 steps are performed to the desired goal, one can… 3. Start futzing with other adjustments to the saddles/bridge/neck angle/nut height/etc… One has to follow these steps. Jumping ahead to #3 before confirming #1 & #2 is a waste of time and guaranteed frustration. When the neck relief shifts with the seasons, the string pitch changes. For example: it gets dry, the neck bows a little, the string is still straight and level , but the distance between the nut and bridge is now shorter, therefore the strings are now flat. Just giving a little tightening to the truss rod back to the predetermined relief will find the strings back in their desired pitch.

Best. Advice. Ever. I now understand the relationship between intonation and neck relief. Thank you so much.

Great video Dylan, most guitar usually just need a Truss Rod adjustment, especially if you live where you have all 4 seasons, A humidifier is your best friend, ever since a started to run a humidifier in my music room in the winter months I find almost all my guitars need way fewer adjustments.

I have some guitars that I just keep the truss rod covers off of.

A great point in this video. Thanks for making it. As neck relief changes you may also hear a difference as the strings move away from the pickups. I have also found that bridges don't move, except, for Fender offset style bridges. The string down force on the two screws takes its toll over time. I have found multiple Squier Jazzmasters and Jaguars that strings hitting pickups just from hanging on a guitar shop wall too long. Locktite can help fight this

The wood on cheaper guitars isn't dried as long as expensive guitars before shaping and so they change as they dry. In my experience, after two years they are as stable as any and if not, get rid of them. I think necks get blamed for cheap tuner instability as well. I put Gotoh locking tuners on everything. Every string is has the exact same temperature drift in tuning on hot days. That's the strings changing length, not the neck. Good stuff Dylan - thanks!

Very practical and good. Good point on the stability issue. Most players probably don't consider that!

I had this experience once a while. A pefect Intonation as i got my Guitar, a month or two later, Action too high, Intonation gone, another Month later perfect... Now i know why, cheers. And about Epiphone and Gibson: I own a Epiphone, actually 2 Epiphones and my Mate owns a Gibson Les Paul, well...it is a complete different Story with the Gibson, you can feel the difference and if i ever get enough money i will try to get an really old Gibson.

I have discovered that the same neck relief (after confirming the minimal string clearance at the third fret) used as a basis for the same string height (regardless of sting scale length or even diameter of strings) leaves only the need for intonation adjustment. Once all that is done once, the neck bow is the major variable subject to environmental conditions. Returning the "action' to my "feel" is done without gauges. That way I only need to carry the correct tool for that adjustment on the guitars taken to the gig. Each tool is labeled to correlate with however many guitars it fits.

Excellent, comprehensive explanation of precisely why. Thank you for sharing your wisdom & energy.-All the Best!

I have a PRS Custom 24 with a torrified maple neck/fingboard. This is an SE model and was made in Korea. I have owned this guiitar for about 5 years or so and have not had to adjust the neck until just last week. Incredible.

I bought a new Kramer Baretta Vintage, with Floyd Rose. After checking everything I found that, like yours, the neck had a forward bow (I used a ruler the same length as the neck). It now has an ever so slightly back bow, but the intonation is perfect, no string buzz and the string action is very low.

Very interesting. I'll take note.

I agree to every piece of advice here, thank you so much! It took me years of trial and error, to come up with ~same approach , to understand which adjustments matter, _and in which order_.

Thank you, Dylan. I have always struggled with guitar setup and things like neck relief. I don't know why it's so hard for me, but this video helped me.

Most informative video I have personally seen on this subject. Thank you for this!

You are 100% correct. Always start with the relief.

Very clear, and very useful video...thanks!

This was excellent, and great demo. Thanx !

Aaahhh, yep! I tune my guitar, check the intonation, and then play it. The only time I’ve ever had an issue with set up after initially done was when I put a completely different gauge of strings on it. And mainly it was neck relief because of different tension (and I probably should have done the nut slots but 🤷‍♀️). Great video. Just play the damn thing.

Great video. Thanks a lot 😃👍

Great video! Amusingly, at times I pick up a guitar that has been stored away and part of me feels that due to changes in playing style and tastes, I may readjust a guitar's setup.

I agree, for years I had heard, don't adjust your action via changing your neck relief. Then I watched a highly respected luthier in my town do just that for my vintage LP. He also didn't stick to the commonly echoed technique of turning the tension rod only a quarter turn at a time for days on end. He said you only do that for very old and valuable guitars as a precaution For all guitars, if it is not easily moving then proceed with caution but within reason. You should always be careful not to strip the nut, but in most cases the" quarter turn at a time, wait a day repeat rule" isn't necessary .

Great video, and you explain things very well as usual.

Great tip and video, Dylan, thanks a lot.

Neck relief is my issue. Low humidity in the summer, high in the winter. Once or twice a year, a small neck relief adjustment is required on a few of my guitars. Once I setup a guitar, other adjustments are almost never necessary.

I do all my own setups including some other stuff, fret leveling for one. I own a 1974 Guild D35 Dreadnaught that I bought new in 1975 when I was 19 years old, in those days all Guild guitars were made in the USA in Westerly RI,....... ..........and I have never had it set up since I bought it almost 50 years ago! I don't play it much, I play my electrics almost exclusively these days, but I took it out just yesterday to play, because the power went out and I had nothing to do,..... and t's still perfect, it's almost completely unbelievable!

I always go straight to the truss rod, I rarely adjust the action at the saddles. If anything I'm a little too trigger happy with the neck adjustments, but I really like play my neck with an exact relief and when it changes it's the only thing I can think about when playing. It's a slippery slope.

Dylan…I’ve been guilty of grabbing wrenches and hogging away until I’m so deep in the weeds I can’t get out…but I learned my lesson 👍

Great explanation!

Yep, you can think of the neck/body combo as a bow (as in bow and arrow). If the bow part expands/contracts (straightens/bends), or the tension of the string changes, the distance between the string and the bow has to change correspondingly. Adjusting the truss rod just lets the bow-part bend less/more. The tuning of the strings is like when you draw the bow's string, just more or less permanent. So if your guitar has gone flat while sitting, you likely need to tighten the truss rod. If it's gone sharp, you probably need to loosen it.

3:47 my acoustic sounds and feels horrible when it’s too dry. The strings sound dead. There’s no resonance. I know the humid is right when the strings ring nicely

You are correct. The only thing that can change itself is neck flatness... not action, not pickup height (though I did have an old guitar that would lower the bridge pickup on the bass side, due to sympathetic vibration).But, I find myself tweaking intonation on practically every string change. Typically on the B & G strings. I think that tolerances in manufacturing create this delta, even to the point that I have had brand new strings that were wildly out of tune... only to mount a new string to find the problem eliminated. Granted, I play a lot of upper register triads (with extensions) while using the lowest note I can find in that neighborhood. The upper register stuff really reveals and sharpness or flatness, because the frequencies are very close together, but also, high enough that you can hear the 'beating' between non-consonant intervals ( I didn't say dissonant, because a M3 isn't dissonant... unless out of tune.). Otherwise, great video. I had some guitars that used to punish me if I left them in the case... high action, or buzzing everywhere.... My response was to let them go. WIth all the gigs and sessions, and a family.... I don't want to console my guitar.... Kind of like a carpenter consoling his hammer.

Shouldn't you lower the string tension before adding tension to the truss rod? I believe I read that somewhere. Great video thanks for the info, I totally agree

Well said. Spot on

Thanks, Dylan. Great advice.

PRS is known for processing their necks to make them more ridged. There's a great factory video in Maryland where they focus on that. If I find the link I'll post it 😊

This makes so much sense, i think subconsciously I put truss rod last on my adjustment priorities because of warnings about doing damage to it. But now i know what im doing this is going to be my starting point. Cheers 🍻

Living in the northeast US with cold dry winters and hot humid summers I run humidifiers and dehumidifiers in the room where my guitars stay. Even with that I still get a difference of 20% from the lowest in the winter to the highest in the summer with occasional larger swings on extreme days. With a collection in the neighborhood of +/- 2 dozen I find that once I have them set up I don't really have to do anything to them. Even seasonal changes don't seem to make a difference. Once every few years I might have to give one truss rod a small adjustment. The only time I have to mess with the hardware is if I take all the strings off and manage to bump something out of place.

Good tips. Thanks.

When I buy a guitar (new or used), I generally restring it and do an initial setup. I might try a couple different gauges the first few re-stings and tweak the setup if needed for the different gauge and string type. After that, I do the usually string changes and seasonal truss rod adjustments if needed. I rarely swap parts. I look at a guitar as either I like it as is or not. That applies to my Squiers, Fenders, etc. I've seen too many folks spend more on parts than the initial guitar which is ok it that's your thing, it's just not mine. The story is different on guitars/basses that I build from either parts or raw wood. That is where I experiment and spend my time experimenting.

I’ve noticed some times The truss Rod will not loosen on older guitars it will only tighten or straighten the neck. I Have a couple of 80s Ibanez Roadstars and the truss rods will turn but will not give any more relief they will only tighten. But the necks on these guitars are almost perfectly straight. I just put 10s on for a while then I can go back to 9s eventually. I’m guessing the wood in these necks have muscle memory.

More is not better ! Glad I found you ❤

One of your best informational videos.

Thank you. Someone actually has the knowledge and skills with guitars. Dude, you ROCK.

Get a string height gauge and the hex wrench to adjust the truss rod a 1/4 turn at a time...check saddle heights as well... and use a room humidifier in the dry months... and finally entonation....the essential setup process....fret files and a crowning file would also be good.

Ride the TRAIN is what I was taught. Tune Relief Action Intonation Noodle It's amazing how much the first two fix the last two most of the time.

Definitely the wood quality matters I rarely have to do adjustments, so even my cheaper ones seem to be well made. It’s been years since I needed to do that, other than a guitar I swapped out the bridge on. (So of course I had to set the intonation and action, but I took measurements.) Years ago looking for a fretless bass I kept seeing some cheaper models that all had serious neck bow. This was at different times of year, different cities, different stores. At one store they told me they kept adjusting them, but they kept bowing. Guess what I didn’t buy? Yet one guy who did buy one was getting all worked up, and taking it personally whenever anybody pointed out that flaw. I guess he likes doing adjustments. Oh well, that’s his choice. The fretless I do own is the instrument that I spent the most on, and the neck’s been great.

Collapsed tuneomatic bridge is a thing and will throw out intonation I agree about the wood. I have two expensive guitars for over 20 years and they’re rock solid. Three cheaper guitars need a truss rod adjustment occasionally

Great video and you nailed the subject well. I do have to say that unstable hardware is not limited to inexpensive guitars though. Rickenbacker used an unstable bridge on the 400x bass series from 1961 thru 2019. Those were notorious for the back of the bridge lifting (bending) up. I'd say that at least 1 out of 4 Rick's that I have seen over the years showed either minor to serious lifting which is not only cosmetic, but must be replaced as the lifted bridge does not have enough break angle . Just a horrible design and made of a zinc/pot metal alloy. They kept that design around for tradition sake only. That bridge did look cool though. There are a few other high end brands that have used inferior hardware too.

Thanks.

Thanks For Sharing Dylan 🧠🎸🎶

great advice a lot to think about for someone who doesn't usually do that kind of work on their guitar

Thanks for that. Over the years it has become clear that the straighter the neck the better. A little relief actually robs string energy because it it pulling against a bowed piece of wood, not a straight pillar that has no flex. Guitars actually ring out better when the neck is straight. If a guitar needs relief, it probably needs fret work.

Yes, the wood moves definitely. Do strings lose tension over time?

Your comment about different wood and guitar stability chinched my birthday guitar decision. I have a few higher end HBs and haven't noticed anything going wonky concerning intonation or neck relief. But... PRS recently came out with a guitar I can afford. Color.... Decisions, decisions...👍

Hell, we get re-rain here in Atlanta. It'll throw a sudden shower so hard, you can't see, then it steams off in minutes, and re-rains few miles away.

I'm always surprised some of mine drift a little and others are solid as a rock and we don't have anywhere as much issues with humidity as you guys. Big argument for roasted necks to get all those pockets of moisture out before the build.

Dylan - do you notice PRS truss rods being particularly sensitive. Same goes for PRS neck. Not sure if it’s also neck joint design that adds to necks going out of whack more frequently? Mine are all pretty unstable unlike your Silver Sky.

I rarely touch the truss rod on my Gibson Les Paul standard. When I had my Epiphone Sheraton, although it sounded good, had to adjust the truss rod every 3 months or so.

Ive been playing now 39 years and have gone through many guitars. Only a few time have I seen this even happen. Being that I move around a lot in my time and life from Las Vegas NV and Laughlin NV deserts, to Florida and TX swamplands of humidity. I find mostly that newer made guitar are more likely to have this issue where they wood was never really fully dried before they made the guitar and has not stabilized yet. My Japan made Ibanez RG 550 I bought in 2000. Its nearly 25 years old now and that guitar has nickel frets and I play the crap out of it. Its just now about to need its first fret leveling and it has NEVER move at all in the neck. It still plays about 97% like the day I got it. But the 3 guitars that did do this, 2 were able to have neck adjustments, and 1 just could never stay stable, so I sold it. I think maybe the wood grain was cut wrong in the neck that it always just kept twisting. But if you store them right, keep them in cases in a room thats stabilized pretty much. You're not going to have much issues with most guitars. I don't play roasted maple necks either, and most of my guitars are bare wood necks. We get 90% humidity here in E TX where I am now and my new Jackson and Kramer. Both of those are bare necks and stay perfect. It really takes a cheap guitar or extremes to do this.

I don't worry about setup too much after I've checked it out when I first get it. I do however, try to avoid nickel frets. I DO wear out frets on guitars quite quickly. I find Fender frets are the softest. I've had to go to stainless on almost all my Fenders after the first year of playing them. Good tips though, very helpful as usual.

If the guitar reacts to the seasonal changes, yep… only the trussrod really needs a little adjustment. It would be interesting to see if that pink PRS will be the same in 6 months when the season is different than a year ago 🤔 quite possibly not a lot. Maple neck also kind of helps 😅

Oh man, I'm 100% guilty of reaching for the tiny wrench first, or the screwdriver. I know, I know... I've always heard you're supposed to adjust the truss first. But I took that to mean: do it first because it'll mess everything else up if you do it last. And usually I'm not planning on doing it anyway. So, I was admittedly skeptical of where this was going, but this cleared a lot up for me, honestly. (In fairness, I've also been experimenting with higher/lower action because I still can't decide what I need and prefer). But generally speaking, I'm going to make a point of checking the relief with a string before doing anything else (not just eyeballing it down the neck - I don't think that helps very much, tbh). Thanks for the video. Makes a lot of sense.

I used to be “meh” about your channel but it’s slowly become one of my favorite guitar channels. ❤

Great tip as it makes sense. I'm just playing hell getting my G&L ASAT Classic setup to not buzz.

I like my action just under 1mm all the way down to the 24th fret. It I have any buzz or dead spots nope. So since my tool is in a very specific high performance setting and I live in Iowa where humidity changes a lot I have to adjust things several times a year. I agree with you about the neck and just a minor adjustment but since it is so slight if I have a vibrato which is usually yes then I just turn the mounting posts slightly since it is much quicker and almost the same results. Also, the weather will change and then I have to move it right the fuck back. I know it is a truss rod thing and if it goes too far I do pop off the cover and adjust the neck then check the vibrato height. Like i said high performance machines/tools require more maintenance that is true with cars, houses, women and yes guitars as well. My Gibson and my Fender move just as often as my cheaper ones. The older the wood is makes it more less. My older Gibson I adjust a lot less often.

The last thing that I will tuch is the rod well if it is well set. Back in the days luthiers told me not to yank that truss. Set it proper and then wait, play and enjoy. Yup it is of wood and it will all move up to a couple of years depending on the guitar and especially the neck so from time to time it might give and take some small amount on that sweet spot of release but most of times it will be fine.

.. lol .. I once lowered my action thinking that that will improve my playing .. later I raise it back to comfort, my comfort .. I discovered that low action is just NOT for me

What neck relief do you recommend for a kramer baretta and an ibanez ps120?

one of my most fav albums since it came out

I'm lucky enough to live in Sydney, with relatively stable humidity throughout the year, usually between 50-60% year-round. I never have to adjust anything on my guitars. I just keep the same gauge on them and store them in their cases. I've got guitars I haven't had to tweak in 20 years.

Thanks for the knowledge.

Spot on!

i have a '91 USA Stratocaster Ultra Plus with a maple neck, an ebony fingerboard, and a Wilkinson roller nut. Apparently, there are three different-sized Wilkinson types for, i think three, different string gauges (so i've heard) and i am not sure which one i have on this Strat. I bought it 2nd hand in December 2023 and it played like a dream until recently. It seems to have an. 08 high E string. I normally use .09 high E strings on my other guitars so i am estimating it was strung with a set of .08s. My issue with the '91 Strat is the B string started buzzing when played open and on the 1st and 2nd frets. . About a month ago, my high E string did the same thing around the 5th fret and i didn't know what to do, so i detuned the one string and raised the action a few times and on the last attempt, the string snapped. So, i installed a new .08 high E and re-tuned the string and it was okay. I even had to lower the high E saddle to where it was before the buzzing started. And now the B string is buzzing on the 1st and open. The only tool i have purchased is a string action ruler but i don't know how to use it yet. Standing in front of the headstock and looking down the neck towards the guitar body, would i need to turn the truss rod to my left (to increase the bow) or to my right (to decrease the bow) to fix this problem? All the other frets are fine. Or maybe i should just change the B string? I don't want to waste the string if it's still good though so I'm trying to leave a string change as my last option. I have already tried raising the B saddle and it doesn't do much to remove the buzz at the nut and "1st' frets, and the B-string's height is getting too high. Any advice on how to solve this buzz? Thanks...to anyone.

So if you have cheaper guitars will they eventually settle in? I have a lot of 5 to 8 hundred dollar guitars . Various brands. I also live in SC so I understand the humidity. Thanks for the valuable information.

Dear Dylan, my guitar's truss rod nut is stripped. Is there anyway to adjust the truss rod? Like winding thread around the allen key? Thanks in advance.

that just happened to me. I wanted to cut out a guitar to allow me to back load pickups to test new ones that make. I picked a guitar I made years ago that I hadn't used in quite a while. I finished and got the first pickup installed, and realized that it moved over the time I hadn't used it. It just took a quick neck adjustment to get it perfect.

I always set the relief to .010" These days, higher action at fret one really bugs me.

To paraphrase Tom Sizemore in Heat: "What if the fiddling is the juice?"

It's very alluring for folks to overthink it... Get a floyd rose involved and what should be a truss tweak becomes a day-long needless process of messing around. Super rare that I have to adjust my truss, but any time I referb and repair old guitars that's the one thing that seems to bring them back to life. I sometimes wonder if the actual screw in the neck works itself looser over a period of years.

Awesome video!

Really truth was said in this video. Congratulations

I can't stop making adjustments on my guitars. I don't even want to, I just can't help it. I constantly adjust the relief, the bridge height, and especially the pickup height. I drive myself absolutely crazy. Even when a guitar is playing well, I get this thought in my head that I can get it a little better and then it changes the distance of the strings from the pickup and then I gotta mess with the pickup height for far longer than I should.

Myself and many others do need stainless steel frets or we are constantly doing fret work and refrets. I will need a refret within 3 years if my main guitar has nickel frets. I only play guitar 1-4 hours a day 6-7 days a week, but I mostly just play 1 electric and 1 acoustic, I have a bunch of guitars but I like to gig on which ever guitar I know the best at the time

I believe when the action is too high the strings are bent too much so they go sharp.

I've never adjusted my 4 PRS guitars, either very stable. Just adjusted the relief on a Gretsch Electromatic, not even a 1/ 2 turn to bring it back to a better action. I live in upstate the weather is variable from season to season, but i don't have to do much tweaking on the 11 guitars I currently own. I once had an EVH Wolfgang special made in Mexico, I liked the guitar, except every spring I would be filing fret sprout, which led to me getting rid of the guitar. It was not an inexpensive guitar. I think I paid $969 plus tax, which put it over $ 1000. I don't think Fender was drying the wood properly when 4 years later, it was still shrinking.

I live in north Florida. The temperature and the humidity changes almost constantly. I'm always having to tweak it a bit here and there. Been playing 62+ years, so I have to work on it a bit. Otherwise it will drive me crazy.

i play only in thailand and my 1998 prs never have problem about action...just neck adjust sometimes🎉

I live in Canada, usually every year I have to adjust neck relief at least 2 times in most of my guitars as seasons change.

Spot on 💯💯💯💯

My guitars hang from the wall, does this effect their neck relief in any way over time?

I have 3 Harley Benton Amarok-7s. I've not needed to adjust any of them. I live in a pretty stable environment that's got great humidity for guitars, but still

TRAIN for setups. Truss rod-Relief-Action-Intonation-Nut. Always in that order.

I have not setup any of my guitars in years. I just tweak the neck from season to season. Sometimes i don't have to. 👍