LQGuitarist
Junior Member
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2006
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I'm new to the forum and am an old guy who has been playing for most of my life. I love blues and am particular to fingerstyle. I picked up a '97 Bluesbird in Black with Schaller SH-1's for what I still feel is a great price of $700.00. The guitar was rarely played and the owner had two - the one he wanted to keep was a custom Cherry Red stained BB with special Electronics. I've had it for about three years, but it did not come alive for me until I found a 94 Fender Blues Deluxe last December that I purchased from a guy in Tennesee over Ebay. It is a great combination.
My Bluesbird has a low serial number that I tracked back to 1997 ( CL0000420).
I've been very happy with the guitar but I never took the time to do a proper setup on it. I'm a structural engineer by professiona and in private practice so for the last few years I've had little time to really play. When I gave my grandson one of my old Japanese Strats last summer, I got the bug to start playing again and when I bought my tube amp, the desire took over as it had for most of my life before I was so caught up in working. Now at 56 years old, I'm starting to put my priorities straight and playing has become important to my personal balance.
I wasn't sure if I could mention other guitars I own so I'll go on to the questions I have about the setup on my BB. I've noticed that there is either a high fret or not enough relief in the neck since the strings mute or buzz on the fret that meets the body. The buzz starts when I'm play at or above the 12th fret and I have a tendency for a light tough (mostly fingerstyle or Chicago Blues).
I bought a set of feeler gauges today and lightly clamped a capo on the first fret and applied pressure on the fret that meets the body. A 0.020" gauge is a tight fit between all of the strings. I'm moving the guage as I check each string (one at a time). There is less than 0.020" relief in the neck with a capo on the first fret and trying to slide the feeler gauge around the 8th fret after applying pressure at the 16th fret or the one where the neck meets the body. I'm going to try tightening the truss rod slightly to see if I can induce more bow to clear the 16th fret. Has anyone had this experience or have there been any issues that might point to a high fret? Since the guitar has been play so very little, the frets are original and the problem could be due to our dry climate (I live in the desert) which can unset a fret. I've placed a straight edge over the frets to find the high fret and the straight edge does rock on the one fret. Before I try to dress the fret, I think I should adjust the neck relief first to see if this relieves the buzz and helps with the intonation.
The next issue has to do with adjustment of the pickup poles. I have Dan Erlewine's DVD for Setup and Maintenance and he suggests lowering the Low and high E poles flush with the pickup cover and then adjust the other poles to the neck radius which is where I run into a problem. I don't want to order radius gauges and since I work on CAD, I can print out a set or radius arcs and glue them to card stock. Has anyone tried this? Also the specs on the newer (2002) Westerly BB's indicated a 12" radius neck. Does anyone know if the same spec was used on the CL serial numbers when it was reissued in '96? The other part of the questiton is if anyone has a spec on the type of fret wire used as these seem pretty low (similar to an early 70's Gibson LP Custom fretless wonder?).
I do need to adjust the intonation, but I have to take care of the neck relief first and the nut adjustment for the strings I'm using. I have this down but would like some feedback from anyone who has done their own setup. I have always set up my own instruments except for cutting a nut or bridge bone on my accoustics. The Adjust-O-Matic's make it easy to do it yourself.
Any opinions that would help me?
Thanks in Advance!
LQGuitarist (new forum member)
My Bluesbird has a low serial number that I tracked back to 1997 ( CL0000420).
I've been very happy with the guitar but I never took the time to do a proper setup on it. I'm a structural engineer by professiona and in private practice so for the last few years I've had little time to really play. When I gave my grandson one of my old Japanese Strats last summer, I got the bug to start playing again and when I bought my tube amp, the desire took over as it had for most of my life before I was so caught up in working. Now at 56 years old, I'm starting to put my priorities straight and playing has become important to my personal balance.
I wasn't sure if I could mention other guitars I own so I'll go on to the questions I have about the setup on my BB. I've noticed that there is either a high fret or not enough relief in the neck since the strings mute or buzz on the fret that meets the body. The buzz starts when I'm play at or above the 12th fret and I have a tendency for a light tough (mostly fingerstyle or Chicago Blues).
I bought a set of feeler gauges today and lightly clamped a capo on the first fret and applied pressure on the fret that meets the body. A 0.020" gauge is a tight fit between all of the strings. I'm moving the guage as I check each string (one at a time). There is less than 0.020" relief in the neck with a capo on the first fret and trying to slide the feeler gauge around the 8th fret after applying pressure at the 16th fret or the one where the neck meets the body. I'm going to try tightening the truss rod slightly to see if I can induce more bow to clear the 16th fret. Has anyone had this experience or have there been any issues that might point to a high fret? Since the guitar has been play so very little, the frets are original and the problem could be due to our dry climate (I live in the desert) which can unset a fret. I've placed a straight edge over the frets to find the high fret and the straight edge does rock on the one fret. Before I try to dress the fret, I think I should adjust the neck relief first to see if this relieves the buzz and helps with the intonation.
The next issue has to do with adjustment of the pickup poles. I have Dan Erlewine's DVD for Setup and Maintenance and he suggests lowering the Low and high E poles flush with the pickup cover and then adjust the other poles to the neck radius which is where I run into a problem. I don't want to order radius gauges and since I work on CAD, I can print out a set or radius arcs and glue them to card stock. Has anyone tried this? Also the specs on the newer (2002) Westerly BB's indicated a 12" radius neck. Does anyone know if the same spec was used on the CL serial numbers when it was reissued in '96? The other part of the questiton is if anyone has a spec on the type of fret wire used as these seem pretty low (similar to an early 70's Gibson LP Custom fretless wonder?).
I do need to adjust the intonation, but I have to take care of the neck relief first and the nut adjustment for the strings I'm using. I have this down but would like some feedback from anyone who has done their own setup. I have always set up my own instruments except for cutting a nut or bridge bone on my accoustics. The Adjust-O-Matic's make it easy to do it yourself.
Any opinions that would help me?
Thanks in Advance!
LQGuitarist (new forum member)