Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Fleming
If you take a fender with a vintage radius neck, and then set it up according to fender spec, you are almost guaranteed to get it to buzz/fret out when you do bends up high on the E or B string. It's a function of physics, due to the curve of the neck's radius vs the height of the string's saddle. There are ways to minimize this that don't necessarily impact the playability too much. For instance, make sure the neck has as little relief as possible, and then set the action at the saddle just a little higher than normal. Too much relief combined with normal saddle height causes a valley around the middle and upper frets, increasing the chances of buzz/fret out. Also, after the neck is straight you can have a tech introduce fallaway into the upper frets, making them progressively lower, just a little bit, from the 13th on up. It's common to do this to guitars, both acoustic and electric (although it's often done to the fretboard/slots instead of the frets themselves) in order to account things like bulge at the neck joint, a closing neck angle (when you don't want to reset the neck yet) and to improve playability in general (like preventing fret-out).
Beyond that, an expert fret levelling and setup (including nut action) should put the rest of the neck in playing order on just about any guitar that doesn't have any issues like truss rod or wood defects. I agree with the poster above who mentioned technique - Fender's recommended setup specs are great but they require a pretty light touch in my opinion.
There are always guitars out there that are just dogs, but I think there are maybe fewer of them than we realize.
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hey mike, one of the techs that has already looked at the guitar mentioned the first line in your post, that the HW neck radius is to blame....ive got to be honest im absolutely astonished that this is the case!!
having been an engineer for quite some years (elec) , the first question that comes to me is why the hell would you release a design with known issues? and then put in a setup guide that highlights these issues? i have a real problem with this i must admit, but if i do end up with the guitar i will try to setup as you suggest, thankyou!
telechucker, i believe the guitar has been to soundworks already, although as the shop i bought it from arranged it i didnt get a chance to talk to Paul, and not even sure he worked on it...i might give him a call this weekend, thanks for that suggestion! (good luck with the baja, there nice:)
as for technique, well i thaught that myself, but 3 people including the guys in the shop i bought it from have played the guitar with the same results, and the fret buzz / out is clearly there...
anyway guys ill keep trudging on this weekend and play as many HW1s as i can to see if its worth gettng the guitar swaped, luckily my 92 mex strat has no issues and keeping me fender warm :)