Adjusting Neck Relief

WT. Foster Guitars Tech Tip of the day March 31, 2015

Adjust neck relief:

We wanted to give a condensed overview of how to check and adjust your guitar neck relief. You can check out our website https://www.wtfosterguitars.com/setup-guide.html for more info on Foster guitars setup.

The first step to determining whether a guitar’s neck needs to be adjusted is to check its relief, or the amount of bow the neck has. You should use a straight edge (16 to 18” steel ruler) to help determine the neck’s straightness or lack of. If you don’t have a ruler your guitar actually has a built-in straight edge! Your strings. To determine neck relief, simply tune the guitar to pitch, then fret the low E to high e strings at the first fret with a capo, then at the last fret where the neck meets the body depress the low E string. The string will form a straight line, Use a standard feeler gauge set to measure the amount of relief at the 7th fret. This measurement should be approx.010” from the bottom of the string to the top of the fret, if adjustment is required this is obtained by adjusting the truss rod. Most modern electric guitars have a 2 way adjustable truss rod. These adjustments should only be done if you are familiar and comfortable with this procedure. Turn the truss rod in ¼ turn increments, (with the headstock top pointing at you) Left will loosen the truss creating more bow or right to tighten the truss straightening or leveling the fret board. Never adjust more than a ¼ turn at a time and allow a few minutes for the wood of the neck to adjust before measuring.

This is the basics to adjusting your guitars neck relief we hope this helps with furthering your knowledge of the finer workings of the guitar!