64 Starfire III neck

[indiemojoe]

Hi all. I recently picked this guy up in near mint condition. This hoeboken beauty actually says "black" on the label rather than ebony as this color is known. Anyways...
My issue is that I can not seem to get acceptably low action. The stock rocker bridge is all the way down and the truss rod has all relief taken out of the neck. It still starts toget high around the 8th fret. Any other guitar I would just lower te bridge. Is in common to need a neck reset on these? I am really hoping this is not the case and that I just need a shorter bridge than the original. Any help is appreciated.

 

[SFIV1967]

Hi there, can you maybe post some pictures how the bridge looks like now? Just curious. I am sure some of our members have experience with those SF IIIs from the 60ties.
Ralf

 

[Walter Broes]

Well, Starfires having a weak neck angle isn't unheard of. Whether they came out of the factory like that or "evolved" into that is anybody's guess, but I've seen (and heard) it before.

With a Bigsby, there IS a limit to how low you can go with a bridge before the strings start jumping out of the bridge slots with even a gentle strum, not so bad with a harp tailpiece.

 

[SFIV1967]

Well, maybe a good idea is to contact our resident luthier Tom (member fixit) in Florida for his opinion.
Ralf

 

[mbrindell]

It is possible that the neck has warped. I have seen some guilds where this has happened. If the bridge is bottomed out and the truss rod has been tightened all the way back to try to fix the action issue, in my experience is that you will need a reset. But a reset is not necessarily a bad thing if you have it done correctly. My main concern is if the neck has warped. In that case you are looking at removing the frets and sanding the neck. Then of course having to do another fret job. It can be rather costly. Have you taken it to a luthier to check it out?