Neck relief

[Steve Perry]

While looking over my F5 type mandolin last night I sighted down the neck and found what looked like a pretty good bow. #With the strings held down at the first and body joint fret, I measured the relief at the 7th fret as about .007. #Is that too much?.. not enough?.. just right? #If I need to adjust the truss rod (I've done it on guitars so I ain't skeert) are there any Mando related tricks I need to be aware of. #On guitars I'll normally just give it about 1/8 of a turn then let it set for awhile before I do anything else.

Thanks,

Steve Perry

[Dave Cohen]

It might be not enough for some, enough for others, and too much for still others. There is no one formula for a correct amount of neck relief, b/c players' preferences vary. Some players with a light touch like their fingerboards perfectly straight. Others who play with a heavy touch may want some noticeable relief. I have found that a clearance at the 6th fret of about 0.012" - 0.015" when the strings are held down at the 1st and 12th frets is on the ragged edge of too much relief. 0.007" relief should not be a problem unless (a) the mandolin feels hard to play (assuming that the rest of the setup is good), or (b) the neck is on its way to bowing more severely, in which case time will tell.

[Steve Perry]

Thanks, Dave... So, if it leans more towards the hard to play/stiff side, which way do you go?... Straighter, or more relief?

Steve

[Dave Cohen]

Straighter, although 0.007" is not usually an excessive amount of relief. I would look for other factors, such as string height at the 1st fret, before blaming playability issues on that amount of relief.

[Michael Lewis]

Steve, the Martin guitar Co. stipulates from .004" - .008" felief for their guitars, which have a much longer scale. I have found that nearly flat frets is usually fine. To be on the safe side give it .002" - .004" at the 7th fret. The 6th and 7th frets should be the lowest area of the relief. When you get the neck that straight you may find the frets are not all that even and may have to face off and recrown them. The closer you adjust the physical elements of the set up the more perfect they ALL need to be in relation to each other to play well.

[tope]

I put a straight edge on the fingerboard and set the relief so that I can put a .003" feeler gage under 5 to 7 frets in the middle of the relief between the frets and straight edge to start. More or less for diff. players.

[Steve Perry]

Thanks, Guys. I'll tweak the rod some to take a little relief out until I can get it in for a good complete setup.

Steve Perry