Neck Resets 1: Introduction
I’d just started writing something about resetting necks on a particular guitar brand when it occurred to me that I hadn’t discussed neck resets in any detail for ages and I don’t think I’ve emailed about the subject. So, before we get into anything specific, let’s check out some higher level stuff.
We’re mostly going to be talking about acoustic guitars here. While it’s sometimes required to reset an electric guitar neck, it’s relatively rare. Acoustics, on the other hand: not so rare.
Over time, string tension can really stress out your acoustic. Tops can belly a little, shoulders and sound holes can sink slightly, sides and neck blocks can give a bit. The years and the tension can pull it out of shape (just like the years and tension can pull us out of shape 😉).
One visible effect is that the action starts to sneak higher over time. So, naturally, we address that and lower the saddle to make the guitar more comfortable to play. Time passes, seasons come and go, we play the guitar and one day realise that the action is a bit high for comfort again. That’s fine. We shave another bit of that saddle and carry on but, before we know it, the cat’s in the cradle and the damn saddle is too low to shave any further. We’ve run out of saddle wiggle room but the action’s grown too high again.
Now we’re at the point where we might consider a neck reset.
A reset is a way to save a guitar and make it play comfortably again. It’s both a terribly simple and fantastically clever concept all at once and I have massive respect for the people that did the hard work of figuring this out and telling the rest of us. Shoulders of giants, here.
To understand the concept, we can imagine that the neck is ‘hinged’ where it meets the body. If we pivot the neck here, the angle it joins the body changes. The neck leans back and the side-effect is that the plane of the stings now lies closer to the fingerboard.
Maybe an actual geometry-style illustration will clarify a little.
In the image, the line A-P represents the fingerboard of the guitar. The line A-B represents the string. As you can see, the action’s pretty high. 😉
If point A angles back (pivoting at point P where the neck joins the body), you can see what happens. Point B hasn’t moved and neither has point P (it’s just the pivot). So, for the same saddle height, angling the neck back has allowed us to get a much lower action.
Simple and brilliant.
Of course, it’s really only the concept that’s simple. The actual work of performing a neck reset can be a little more involved. We’ll leave that until next time, though.
Will all acoustics need a neck reset?
No. Probably not. Most of them? Yeah, that’s more likely. I’ve long said that, if you have pretty much any steel string guitar long enough, you’ll probably have to consider a neck reset but it’s not all of them. More lightly built guitars will hold up to the strain less well that something that’s built like a WWI tank.
Any there’s no real time estimate for this. It depends. You might get fifty years or you might get five.
Some guitars, as they get older and older may even need more than one neck reset in their lives.
What about new guitars?
Regarding the age thing, I should mention that it’s possible that a guitar will occasionally leave the factory with an underset neck. It’ll have less headroom for lowering the action than it should. I had a beautiful (and expensive) guitar in the workshop a couple of months ago that, brand new, had higher action and nowhere to go with it.
These cases, although reasonably rare, do happen. When they do, your first port of call will probably be to the retailer, distributor, or maker. A neck reset on a sixty-year old guitar isn’t going to be a warranty issue but if you’ve a brand new guitar with an underset neck, well, that’s a different matter.
Even if it’s something you reckon you can live with right now, remember that the same stresses will apply to the guitar over time and it already has a head-start. Its longevity is impacted and the elapsed time before it will absolutely require a neck reset is going to be shorter.
Neck resets are generally pretty involved and are not inexpensive. If you can get it sorted as a warranty repair, you’ll probably want to do so.
So, how do I know if I need a neck reset?
Well, if your guitar saddle can’t be taken lower without badly impacting break-angle, but your action is still too high for comfort, that’s a reasonable initial indication.
You can perform a slightly more concrete test too. In a well-set guitar, an imaginary line along the tops of the frets (we'll call it the 'fret-plane') will hit the bridge right at its top edge. The blue line in the graphic below shows what I mean.
Lay a long straight-edge along the frets and check where its end contacts the bridge. If the contact point is significantly lower than the bridge top, it might be worth talking to a good tech. If you don’t have a straight-edge long enough, you can sight along the neck from the headstock. You should be able to tell whether the fret-plane line hits below the top of the bridge.
Here’s a couple of very old photos showing what I mean. Sorry about the size and quality.
A round-up of this neck reset series
This article written by Gerry Hayes and first published at hazeguitars.com
The final touches. Everything’s back together and the reset is done. Just a few last considerations.