If you haven’t made a lot of guitar changes and setups, adjusting the Stratocaster guitar neck is a little scary. And if you’re doing a setup on a maple fretboard, it’s really scary because you shouldn’t adjust the truss rod. Luckily, adjusting the neck on a Fender Strat is usually unnecessary. My Mexistrat, however, needed it right away. I had a big bow in the neck, which at my skill level was causing dead notes from buzz. Here’s how I did it. Like I said, I’m not highly skilled with this, so consider double-checking with a luthier or another trusted source.
The first thing to do is make sure there’s actually a problem. I used my capo on the first fret and my fingers to press down the sixth string at the fret where the neck joins the guitar body. On a bolt-on neck like the Strat’s, this isn’t a perfectly accurate way of checking, but it’s close enough for government work. Tap the string down at the 8th or 9th fret (you don’t need to get your picking hand involved, just use your fretting hand to raise and lower the string) and see if there’s any gap between the string and whatever fret it’s resting on. If there’s no gap or a tiny bit of buzz, your neck is probably fine. If there’s a lot of space, you may need to adjust. Bear in mind that if you have super low action there may not be any room to straighten the neck without getting crazy fret buzz, so be careful. Also, a symptom of too much neck relief is high action, so if you have a big gap at the 8th fret, you may need to raise your bridge, not mess with the truss rod. It’s a good idea to take some notes or mark your starting place with a small piece of painter’s tape. I took measurements at the 1st, 7th, and 12th frets; your Strat’s neck may have different specs, but my Mexistrat has a .022″-.042″ neck relief spec. (That’s 22 thousandths with a capo on the first fret and the eight or ninth fret, not .022 inches.)To continue, I needed the right tools. The only tool I needed to change the neck on my Strat was a 3/16″ hex (Allen) wrench to adjust the truss rod. I also had a set of feeler gauges, but I didn’t end up using them; I could feel where I had the neck after each small adjustment. Some people, i.e., the guys on the Telecaster Guitar Forum, are vehemently opposed to adjusting a truss rod without feeler gauges. Those people are more capable and knowledgeable than I am, so you should probably listen to them, not me.The last thing I did before starting was to make sure the neck / body screws were tight. There’s a 50s Fender Bolt Myth that says to intentionally keep these loose to aid neck resonance or some such hooey. I made sure mine were snug which may have helped matters or may have had no effect whatsoever.On to the actual neck adjustment! I put my guitar on its back on my kitchen table, tuned to pitch. I gave the headstock a little thump to make sure the neck didn’t suddenly change, then located the hole for the truss rod at the headstock end of the neck. Taking a firm grip on the neck just above the nut with my left hand (I’m right-handed), I inserted my truss rod wrench and, looking down from tuner height, turned it counterclockwise about an eighth of a turn. I then removed my left hand to let the neck do whatever it was going to do. In this case, the strings pulled the neck up, and I could see that the bow was significantly reduced. I put my left hand back in place and thumped the headstock again to settle everything, then checked my gap/relief as described above. Since I had made a fairly large change, I wasn’t surprised to find that I still had too much neck relief. I turned the wrench another eighth of a turn or so, then checked again. I had a small gap, maybe .010″, and when I played the guitar all the strings buzzed like crazy from the low action. I raised the treble side of the neck a tiny bit (you really need to fret the low E at whatever fret you’re checking from while you check the gap) and checked the gap again. I had a little more clearance, and the strings in the middle of the neck were still too low. I raised that side of the neck, checked the gap (which was level), and rechecked the gap after every adjustment so I could stop when it looked right. I ended up with about .017″ gap, and the guitar played fine without any dead notes, so that’s where I stopped.This was the outcome, however, the process was anything but smooth. When I raised the low side of the neck the second time, I created a gap on the bass side of the neck. I pushed the neck down to remove the gap and the gap moved to the treble side. I raised the neck a hair to get rid of the treble side gap and the gap moved back to the bass side… basically, I chased a “ski jump”; where the frets closer to the body are lower than the frets under the treble side of the neck. I couldn’t correct it completely, but I got it to where only the highest frets showed a tiny gap. I decided that was “good enough,” but it bugged me so much that a couple of days later I decided to try again. This time everything went much quicker. I tuned the guitar then gave the neck a firm yank (I read about this in Dan Erlewine’s “How to Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great” book). The guitar had the same “ski jump” neck out of adjustment as before, but when the neck settled back the high frets were much more level with the low side. I made a small adjustment to push the high side down a bit, checked my gap (which was a touch over .010″), leveled the neck, checked the gap again and quit when I had the gap I wanted with a level neck.When I was doing my final checking I found that my gap/neck relief changed if I checked it with the thump tuner low E string method vs. using my capo on the first fret. I decided to go with the feel method (the gap looked right, and the strings didn’t buzz) and call it good. I’ve played the guitar a lot since then and haven’t noticed any problems.
Adjusting the Stratocaster guitar neck is a relatively easy way to get rid of that low action buzz on a brand new guitar. There are some pitfalls, though. The first is knowing when you have a problem. Unless you have a huge bow in the neck (like I did) you probably shouldn’t mess with it. If you have a bow in the neck when you get your Strat, the next problem is knowing whether you should fix it. If the action is low and there’s no buzz, you shouldn’t mess with it. If the action is high, raise the bridge before you do anything with the neck. If you have a lot of buzz, look for high frets before you change the neck. Assuming you go ahead and change the neck, the last problem is knowing when to stop. It’s easy to get the neck too straight or not straight enough, and chasing a problem like I did will make you absolutely nuts. I’ve heard that it’s also possible to “kink” the neck by raising the action too much at the body. This is another reason to take it slow and make small adjustments. If you decide to go for it, I wish you good luck. Like I said, getting rid of that bow on my neck made a huge improvement on my Mexistrat. The neck actually *LOOKED* better, the big gap at the body was gone.
If you decide to go for it, I wish you good luck. Like I said, getting rid of that bow on my neck made a huge improvement on my Mexistrat. The neck actually *LOOKED* better, the big gap at the body was gone.
The first thing to do is make sure there’s actually a problem. I used my capo on the first fret and my fingers to press down the sixth string at the fret where the neck joins the guitar body. On a bolt-on neck like the Strat’s, this isn’t a perfectly accurate way of checking, but it’s close enough for government work. Tap the string down at the 8th or 9th fret (you don’t need to get your picking hand involved, just use your fretting hand to raise and lower the string) and see if there’s any gap between the string and whatever fret it’s resting on. If there’s no gap or a tiny bit of buzz, your neck is probably fine. If there’s a lot of space, you may need to adjust. Bear in mind that if you have super low action there may not be any room to straighten the neck without getting crazy fret buzz, so be careful. Also, a symptom of too much neck relief is high action, so if you have a big gap at the 8th fret, you may need to raise your bridge, not mess with the truss rod. It’s a good idea to take some notes or mark your starting place with a small piece of painter’s tape. I took measurements at the 1st, 7th, and 12th frets; your Strat’s neck may have different specs, but my Mexistrat has a .022″-.042″ neck relief spec. (That’s 22 thousandths with a capo on the first fret and the eight or ninth fret, not .022 inches.)To continue, I needed the right tools. The only tool I needed to change the neck on my Strat was a 3/16″ hex (Allen) wrench to adjust the truss rod. I also had a set of feeler gauges, but I didn’t end up using them; I could feel where I had the neck after each small adjustment. Some people, i.e., the guys on the Telecaster Guitar Forum, are vehemently opposed to adjusting a truss rod without feeler gauges. Those people are more capable and knowledgeable than I am, so you should probably listen to them, not me.The last thing I did before starting was to make sure the neck / body screws were tight. There’s a 50s Fender Bolt Myth that says to intentionally keep these loose to aid neck resonance or some such hooey. I made sure mine were snug which may have helped matters or may have had no effect whatsoever.On to the actual neck adjustment! I put my guitar on its back on my kitchen table, tuned to pitch. I gave the headstock a little thump to make sure the neck didn’t suddenly change, then located the hole for the truss rod at the headstock end of the neck. Taking a firm grip on the neck just above the nut with my left hand (I’m right-handed), I inserted my truss rod wrench and, looking down from tuner height, turned it counterclockwise about an eighth of a turn. I then removed my left hand to let the neck do whatever it was going to do. In this case, the strings pulled the neck up, and I could see that the bow was significantly reduced. I put my left hand back in place and thumped the headstock again to settle everything, then checked my gap/relief as described above. Since I had made a fairly large change, I wasn’t surprised to find that I still had too much neck relief. I turned the wrench another eighth of a turn or so, then checked again. I had a small gap, maybe .010″, and when I played the guitar all the strings buzzed like crazy from the low action. I raised the treble side of the neck a tiny bit (you really need to fret the low E at whatever fret you’re checking from while you check the gap) and checked the gap again. I had a little more clearance, and the strings in the middle of the neck were still too low. I raised that side of the neck, checked the gap (which was level), and rechecked the gap after every adjustment so I could stop when it looked right. I ended up with about .017″ gap, and the guitar played fine without any dead notes, so that’s where I stopped.This was the outcome, however, the process was anything but smooth. When I raised the low side of the neck the second time, I created a gap on the bass side of the neck. I pushed the neck down to remove the gap and the gap moved to the treble side. I raised the neck a hair to get rid of the treble side gap and the gap moved back to the bass side… basically, I chased a “ski jump”; where the frets closer to the body are lower than the frets under the treble side of the neck. I couldn’t correct it completely, but I got it to where only the highest frets showed a tiny gap. I decided that was “good enough,” but it bugged me so much that a couple of days later I decided to try again. This time everything went much quicker. I tuned the guitar then gave the neck a firm yank (I read about this in Dan Erlewine’s “How to Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great” book). The guitar had the same “ski jump” neck out of adjustment as before, but when the neck settled back the high frets were much more level with the low side. I made a small adjustment to push the high side down a bit, checked my gap (which was a touch over .010″), leveled the neck, checked the gap again and quit when I had the gap I wanted with a level neck.When I was doing my final checking I found that my gap/neck relief changed if I checked it with the thump tuner low E string method vs. using my capo on the first fret. I decided to go with the feel method (the gap looked right, and the strings didn’t buzz) and call it good. I’ve played the guitar a lot since then and haven’t noticed any problems.
Adjusting the Stratocaster guitar neck is a relatively easy way to get rid of that low action buzz on a brand new guitar. There are some pitfalls, though. The first is knowing when you have a problem. Unless you have a huge bow in the neck (like I did) you probably shouldn’t mess with it. If you have a bow in the neck when you get your Strat, the next problem is knowing whether you should fix it. If the action is low and there’s no buzz, you shouldn’t mess with it. If the action is high, raise the bridge before you do anything with the neck. If you have a lot of buzz, look for high frets before you change the neck. Assuming you go ahead and change the neck, the last problem is knowing when to stop. It’s easy to get the neck too straight or not straight enough, and chasing a problem like I did will make you absolutely nuts. I’ve heard that it’s also possible to “kink” the neck by raising the action too much at the body. This is another reason to take it slow and make small adjustments.
If you decide to go for it, I wish you good luck. Like I said, getting rid of that bow on my neck made a huge improvement on my Mexistrat. The neck actually *LOOKED* better, the big gap at the body was gone.