Straightening your Electric or Acoustic Guitar neck for better playability

Author: Ian-Bush Date Posted:8 August 2012

Here is a quick and easy process to check and adjust your truss rod

Tools Required

Capo, Feeler Gauge, Truss Rod Allen key, Tuner

Steps

1. Tune your guitar to your normal tuning (with your normal gauge of strings on the guitar)

2. Place a capo on the first fret

3. Hold the guitar in playing position

4. Place your finger on the last fret of the neck (19th-24th fret)

5. Measure the gap at the fret the ideal gaps are shown below under "ideal gaps”. These gaps are super thin - about the thickness of a business card so if you don’t have a feeler gauge a business card will do a basic job. (You can buy a feeler gauge from a hardware store for only a few dollars)

6. If you have too much gap, adjust the truss rod 1/4 turn clockwise and recheck

7. If you have too little gap (it's too close to the fret) adjust the truss rod 1/4 turn anticlockwise and recheck

Ideal Gaps

Steel-string acoustic guitar - Gap 0.05mm at the 8th fret

Nylon-string acoustic guitar - Gap 0.05mm at the 8th fret

Electric guitar Gap 0.025mm at the 8th fret

Bass Guitar Gap 0.356mm at the 7th fret

Thanks for reading this blog! to give you even more great content, check out our pages.

Join our newsletter for tips, advice, new products, and great deals
Visit our YouTube channel for some great Demo’s & Tutorials
Our Facebook page for updates and specials and more
Visit our website

I hope this article has helped. if you need any assistance please email:

sales@artistguitars.co.nz or call us on 0800 025 467

© Artist Guitars 2021

Comments (2)

Great timing

By: Anonymous on 9 August 2012
With the changes in humidity and temperature during wintertime, the guitar tone woods will shrink, expand and generally move around. This is a great blog post to read up and know how to keep your guitar in top playing condition. Great article Ian and great timing. I have a few guitars I was about to adjust the truss rod... so now i can put them up on the workbench.

what is the scale?

By: Anonymous on 9 August 2012
Great guide but you don't say whether it is inches or millimeters. Please add in this detail. Thanks.

Leave a comment

[@config:company_name@] complies with the New Zealand Privacy Act 1993 when dealing with personal information. Personal information is information about an identifiable individual (a natural person). This policy sets out how we will collect, use, disclose and protect your personal information. This policy does not limit or exclude any of your rights under the Act. If you wish to seek further information on the Act, see www.privacy.org.nz

This Privacy Policy describes how your personal information is collected, used, and shared when you visit or make a purchase from www.artistguitars.co.NZ (the “Site”).

CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

We may change this policy by uploading a revised policy onto the website. The change will apply from the date that we upload the revised policy. This policy was last updated on 13/10/2020

PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

When you visit the Site, we automatically collect certain information about your device, including information about your web browser, IP address, time zone, and some of the cookies that are installed on your device. Additionally, as you browse the Site, we collect information about the individual web pages or products that you view, what websites or search terms referred you to the Site and information about how you interact with the Site. We refer to this automatically-collected information as “Device Information.”

We collect Device Information using the following technologies:

“Cookies” are data files that are placed on your device or computer and often include an anonymous unique identifier. For more information about cookies, and how to disable cookies, visit www.allaboutcookies.org
“Log files” track actions occurring on the Site, and collect data including your IP address, browser type, Internet service provider, referring/exit pages, and date/time stamps.
“Web beacons,” “tags,” and “pixels” are electronic files used to record information about how you browse the Site.

Additionally, when you make a purchase or attempt to purchase through the Site, we collect certain information from you, including your name, billing address, shipping address, payment information (including credit card numbers), email address, and phone number. We refer to this information as “Order Information.”

When we talk about “Personal Information” in this Privacy Policy, we are talking both about Device Information and Order Information.

HOW DO WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

We use the Order Information that we collect generally to fulfil any orders placed through the Site (including processing your payment information, arranging for shipping, and providing you with invoices and/or order confirmations). Additionally, we use this Order Information to:

Communicate with you;

Screen our orders for potential risk or fraud; and

When in line with the preferences you have shared with us, provide you with information or advertising relating to our products or services.

We use the Device Information that we collect to help us screen for potential risk and fraud (in particular, your IP address), and more generally to improve and optimize our Site (for example, by generating analytics about how our customers browse and interact with the Site, and to assess the success of our marketing and advertising campaigns). Device information may also be used to send marketing information specific to the device.

SHARING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We share your Personal Information with third parties to help us use your Personal Information, as described above. For example, we use Neto to power our online store--you can read more about how Neto uses your Personal Information here: https://www.netohq.com/privacy-policy. We also use Google Analytics to help us understand how our customers use the Site--you can read more about how Google uses your Personal Information here: https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/. You can also opt-out of Google Analytics here: tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Finally, we may also share your Personal Information to comply with applicable laws and regulations, to respond to a subpoena, search warrant or another lawful request for information we receive, or to otherwise protect our rights.

BEHAVIORAL ADVERTISING

As described above, we use your Personal Information to provide you with targeted advertisements or marketing communications we believe may be of interest to you. For more information about how targeted advertising works, you can visit the Network Advertising Initiative’s (“NAI”) educational page: http://www.networkadvertising.org/understanding-online-advertising/how-does-it-work.

You can opt-out of targeted advertising by following these 3rd party provider links:

Additionally, you can opt-out of some of these services by visiting the Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out portal at optout.aboutads.info/.

DO NOT TRACK

Please note that we do not alter our Site’s data collection and use practices when we see a Do Not Track signal from your browser.

YOUR RIGHTS

Subject to certain grounds for refusal set out in the Act, you have the right to access your readily retrievable personal information that we hold and to request a correction to your personal information. Before you exercise this right, we will need evidence to confirm that you are the individual to whom the personal information relates.

In respect of a request for correction, if we think the correction is reasonable and we are reasonably able to change the personal information, we will make the correction. If we do not make the correction, we will take reasonable steps to note on the personal information that you requested the correction. If you want to exercise either of the above rights, email us at sales@artistguitars.co.nz.

Your email should provide evidence of who you are and set out the details of your request (e.g. the personal information, or the correction, that you are requesting). We may charge you our reasonable costs of providing to you copies of your personal information or correcting that information.

DATA RETENTION

When you place an order through the Site, we will maintain your Order Information for our records unless and until you ask us to delete this information.

CHANGES

We may update this privacy policy from time to time in order to reflect, for example, changes to our practices or for other operational, legal or regulatory reasons.

CONTACT US

For more information about our privacy practices, if you have questions, or if you would like to make a complaint, please contact us by e-mail at sales@artistguitars.co.nz or by mail using the details provided below:

PO Box 339, Wanaka 9343