Setup help

[EPB]

I'm sure this has been asked before but my searches haven't found what I'm after.
can you point me in the direction of a good guide in setting up/ adjusting the neck and action.
i have a bolt on and a soloist with some fret buzz. I had paid a "tech" to set them up for me but I actually think they are worse!
Anyway I've decided to try and deal with this myself, if possible.
I understand the basics about the truss rod, intonation etc. where I can't get info is around keeping the action reasonably low and giving relief to the neck also?
another issue is that the buzz occurs mostly on low E and the G string.
I have read loads of stuff on neck relief and action individually but can't see anything on working on both at the same time.
any help pointing me in the right direction would be appreciated.

[Newc]

First, make sure you don't have a high fret. It isn't so much about a fret coming out of the slot, but of not being uniform with the radius of the board. So it's not really a high fret as it is a high spot on the fret, or on several frets. Find out of you have a Plek machine nearby and see what they charge for the treatment.

Second, make sure the nut is not the problem. Even with Floyd-style nuts, which are manufactured by machine, tolerances can vary enough to cause buzzing on open strings. Swap the nut for an identical one and you could resolve the issue, or simply relocate it to other strings.

These first two conditions will have the biggest influence on whether or not the guitars can be set up to your liking.


Third, I've encountered very few guitars that could be set up for what I consider low action with no string/fret buzz anywhere along the neck. Maybe 3 out of nearly 80 guitars I've owned.


But here's how I do it, and it works for me.
1. Set the rod so the neck is flat at full string tension. Lower the pickups considerably so they don't pull on the strings, causing false errors.
2. Adjust the action where you want it, retune to pitch and reset the intonation if needed.
3. Check for buzzing, amplified, and see if it's tolerable with respect to note duration. Acoustic buzzing on an electric guitar is inconsequential until it interferes with realistic demands of sustain and clarity of notes and chords. If you're playing speed metal with no need for cleans, buzzing is most likely not going to be an issue because you're not on a given note long enough for it to matter.
4. If the buzzing is a realistic problem, and it's closer to the nut (1st fret to 9th fret), but everything's fine on the higher frets (12th to last), look into shimming the nut. If it's a non-locking nut, see about having a replacement cut that is a bit taller.
5. If the buzzing is a realistic problem all along the neck, and/or you find notes choking out on bends, consider shimming the nut and raising the bridge until bends no longer choke out.
6. If the buzzing is tolerable on the first half of the neck (1-12) but bends choke out on the higher frets (13-last), then you can look into adding relief 1/4 of a turn or less.
7. If you manage to get the action and relief set where you want them both, then you can raise the pickups. Just be aware they'll pull on the strings, which may cause them to start buzzing again. If you raise the action again to compensate, you'll likely have to adjust the pickups again, and it keeps going like that.

[EPB]

Newc, Thanks for that. Exactly the sort of info I was after.
What do you use to check if you have a high fret? I have a steel 30cm ruler or do I need something specific?

[NewHewkas]

Hello!

I have an interesting problem, on my RR24 the open high E string is choking, but I don't know why... I bought the guitar used ~5 month ago it was used with 12-60 string gauges on B tuning, now I use it with 10-46 Elixir strings on D tuning, I have set the truss rod(flatted the neck) and the bridge a bit, at the moment it has minimal buzzes on the high frets and mostly on the bass strings, I know maybe I should adjust the bridge more, but this is not the real problem of mine. I don't know what causes the choking on the high E. I've tried to ?soften? the truss rod adjustments, but nothing has changed. The nut has minimal wear and the locking blocks have wears too, but still the OFR works fine, and don't have problems on the other strings. Currently the base plate's upper bass side is popped above the finish ~1-2 millimetre, the high string side's upper part is in level with the finish. The action is ~1-2 millimetre too.

Here you can listen to my problem: https://soundcloud.com/nonexisteditis/problem-highe