Bolt-on neck "trick"?

[grunge782]

I think I read somewhere about a "trick" where you unscrew a strung up bolt-on guitar half a turn on all the screws, then screw them back in. This supposedly gets the neck closer to the body.

Is there a certain way you are supposed to do this? Such as placing the guitar body flat down on a flat surface, screwing and unscrewing them in a certain order (ones closest to the body first, etc...). I just don't want to strip the screw holes on my guitar when I do this with the tension on the neck.

Thanks for any experts chiming in.

 

[walterw]

here's the thread of the trick that somehow got my name attached to it, it's an old G&L setup step.

 

[grunge782]

here's the thread of the trick that somehow got my name attached to it, it's an old G&L setup step.

Ah thank you very much walter...though I'd like a little more clarification if you don't mind. Do you just lay the guitar on its face, then unscrew them 1/4 a turn in whatever order?
As I said before, I just don't want to damage anything.

 

[walterw]

just hold it however, loosen them all 1/4 turn or so, push and pull to unstick the neck (so the strings can pull it all the way tight into the pocket), make sure it's lined up with the E strings again, re-tighten them all.

even simpler to do than to explain. (read the thread though, especially the caveats about certain ibanez guitars!)

 

[markophonic]

I've done this on a couple dozen of my Fenders with many having significantly noticeable positive results.

 

[StratoCraig]

Very interesting! I'd never heard of this before. I just tried it on two Strats (the white and black ones that you can see here). On the white one (a 2010 MIM), it did very little; I could not feel the neck move, and none of the strings were even a quarter-step out of tune afterward. Resonance and sustain did not seem changed. But on the black one (a '92 MIM), the neck shifted noticeably toward the body as soon as it was loosened, and after re-tightening, most of the strings were at least a half-step flat (the low E had become a D!). After re-tuning, I find that the instrument is indeed much more resonant. Thanks for the tip!

 

[Ronsonic]

Now recheck intonation. If it moved, it moved.

 

[burningyen]

 

[Boris Bubbanov]

On other Boards, the Search Terms are:

Walter W Chiropractic Neck Adjustment Trick!

:^)

I think Walter helped lift this Task out of the doldrums and got people who pay little attention to finally do this. Gotta love something that is simple and costs basically nothing except your time and attention. Not an obscure thing, anymore.

 

[StratoCraig]

Actually, what surprised me was that my intonation was better after doing this trick. Both my black and white Strats were purchased fairly recently, and I had checked the intonation and found that they were both slightly off, but not enough for me to make it a priority to adjust them. But now they're both dead on! Weird.

 

[camstudio]

I stumbled on this by mistake recently. If your neck pocket is cut well it makes sense.

 

[andyk]

You definitely want to do this with the guitar resting on the floor, on it's strap lug. That way, the neck will pull down tighter into the pocket without veering left or right!

Simple 1/4 turn to loosen the screws - then tighten again. The string tension does the work, No need to push/pull the neck anywhere.

 

[walterw]

ehh, sometimes.

sometimes it won't "unstick" unless you do a little push/pull, and sometimes the string pull itself will push the neck off-center; you automatically clear both hurdles with a quick neck wiggle and taking care to hold the neck centered while you re-tighten.

 

[zsno]

Walter,

Just did this on my new Jaguar, like I've been doing for years since you taught me the first time! Hope to come see ya soon, I think it may be time for some fretwork on a couple of guitars.