The Electra Forums

My main ax is buzzing. Does weather change really affect your shits? All of a sudden my low e string is buzzing bad. People in seattle are jerks. But it went from hot to cold lickity split. My e string is thudding.

Temperature and humidity changes can make a big difference. From what I recall from the time I spent their, Seattle goes from warm and dry to cold and wet in about a week. This can have a profound effect on your guitar. I would look at all the regular set up things but most likely a tweak on the truss rod will do the trick.

BTW I left Seattle 'cus of the people.

Hahaha thanks workingman! As much as this town bugs me, there seems to be an endless supply of great music gear. Yeah it just went from summer to winter in just twi days.

Try the Eastside people are much more laid back and friendly

I had similar issues the first winter I spent in Nashville. If you are running a heater at all, you should pick up a humidifier from walgreens to keep the air a little moist.

BTW Nashville is awesome for used music gear too. Lots of deals from people upgrading, and just selling stuff. Still the vintage gear doesn't get too cheap.

Living in the Toronto area I never have any problems...might have something to do with the 4-6 huge aquariums my wife usually has on the go. Way better than humidifiers

The week was warm, then last night it rained like crazy (3.5 inches all at once) complete with tornado warnings at about midnight, then today is was very cool. Welcome to Indiana. Summers humid as can be, winters dry as all heck, floods and tornadoes in between.

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Thorny

Keep that truss rod wrench handy.

What's the rule of thumb? 1/4 turn clockwise?

1/4 of a turn or less at a time with a rest period in between is always a good idea. It gives the neck a chance to settle. I weather change should not normally require much of an adjustment beyond that.

Righty - Tighty (clockwise) will reduce the bow, or flatten the board.
Lefty - Loosey (counter-clockwise) will increase the bow.

Depends on what you need.

If you adjust it for the first time, you might need more adjustment than that, especially it if is completely loose and/or rattles. You don't want it so loose it rattles. You don't want to crank down on the thing and split the fingerboard right off the neck or strip or break the truss rod or something crazy like that. It happens.

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Thorny

Agreed.

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RCSBlues

The first time I adjust a truss rod on a guitar, particularly an older guitar, I like to slacken the stings; take the nut off the rod; clean every thing up; use a small amount of a dry lubricant; then put it all back together and start the adjustment process. It may sound like a pain but it is much better than a stripped nut or broken truss rod.

You guys will laugh at this, and I was horrified when I saw a respected repairman do it to my friends 50's strat, but...1/4 turn then put the neck over your knee and apply gentle but firm pressure in the correct direction. This virtually eliminates the multi day adjustment period. You can get the neck right in 5 minutes. Laugh if you want, but I've been doing this for 10+ years with great results...and I started off by being mortified when I saw this expert repairman do it!!!

I'll preface this by saying I've never had the guts to try this on my vintage Les Paul...in fact my X930 is probably the priciest guitar I've ever used this technique with, but probably 80-100 guitars with perfect results.

I've done that plenty of times as well. It works. I've had a couple disturbing crack type sounds but I could feel it was probably just a tiny bind of the TR in the channel. I basically don't adjust TR's anymore after the initial time. If the winter/summer transition is sudden and it effects the neck I usually will just give it a gentle bend. IMO people monkey with their TR's way too much. Once you have the proper relief it really won't change much. A one piece neck is way more likely to warp or bow than a laminated neck and cranking a TR in those cases can do more harm than good. I've busted a couple in my dumber days and have no desire to do that again.

My first experience paying a guitar "repairman" for a job was when I was a kid and I wanted my Conrad (cheap cheap Japanese guitar, and not a good one) to play easier. I paid the guy to set it up. It came back with the fingerboard split off from the neck - and the guy still charged us for it. The guitar truthfully was not even originally worth what we paid to have it setup really, but I wanted it to play easier. Wow. I gave the guitar away and had to buy another guitar.

Incidentally it is JUST like one of the early very cheap Electras - so it had to be made by the same company. It was sort of a Jazzmaster looking sort of deal (mutiple switches) and had two dearmond-like rectangular pickups. I guess I have him to thank for me learning to do all of this on my own. I knew that I could totally mess things up and still be better off than taking it to that guy, because I would not charge myself for destroying an instrument. Luckily, I have never done that (destroyed an instrument). I have repaired a few separated fingerboards since then too.

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Thorny