Warped neck?

[bush-man]

I am having intonation problems with my mando, and I am guessing that the neck is warped somehow. On the e string there are a lot of dead frets as you work your way up the finger board, which starts pretty much at the 11th fret, and the 12th and 13th are pretty much the same, before a fretted note works again at the 14th. The a string is similar, although not as pronounced. THe bottom 2 stings while not perfect, don't exhibit this behaviour.

I have moved the bridge around, and adjusted the height, but I can't seem to get a fix, whcih is why I am guessing its a warped neck, My question is, is there anything I can do to fix this? Can I adjust my truss rod? Will that do anything? I have never had to adjust a truss rod before, so I am not sure. Any input/help would be most appreciated. Oh the mando is a MK Legacy.

thanks

russell

[Paul Hostetter]

I think this needs a basic evaluation, because you're guessing at things from symptoms that aren't necessarily very good indicators of the problem. Warped necks happen, but so do bowed ones, and somethimes these symptoms result from a few bad frets. If you don't have a knowledgable luthier to consult, try frets.com (http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Luthier/Technique/Setup/BuzzDiagnosis/buzzintro.html) and see if you can't isolate the problem better before you start messing with the trussrod and so on. An organized approach is going to get you better results quicker! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Rick Turner]

Do you have a 6" straight edge? Lay in on the frets between the strings and see if you get any rocking which might identify high frets; even the edge of a credit card could work. But Paul is right, you need to get this to a pro to really get it fixed.

[Stephanie Reiser]

If it is a few high frets as it sure sounds like the straight edge will point this out. If this were the case, leveling those offending frets should solve it. Take it to the repair person for this, as the frets would then have to be re-crowned and re-dressed. However, if it has the normally small mandolin-style frets there may not be enough fret metal to remove and still have usuable frets remaining. If so, the entire board would have to be re-leveled. I had a mandolin in the shop recently with a similar problem. It was so frustrating that I ended up pulling the board off and releveled the neck wood. Read the fretsdotcom literature and then take it to someone experienced enough in this field.