saturn Posted June 29, 2013 Share Posted June 29, 2013 At least United didn't break my guitar. B) My son took the SG Classic with him when he when he was station in Anchorage Alaska with the Air Force. My wife flew out to visit him and he wanted her to bring the guitar back with her saying he rarely played it and that somehow the neck got warped. When she got it home today, I took a look.... The strings are basically sitting on top of the fretboard and also touching the bridge pickup. Part of the problem seems to be that the bridge is set all the way down against the body. I don't think my son would have messed with the adjustment. I know Alaska weather is harsh but damn.... I'm thinking I shouldn't even attempt to adjust this and just take it straight to a pro. What do you all think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RowdyMoon Posted June 29, 2013 Share Posted June 29, 2013 I say let it adjust to the new environment for awhile but in the meantime raise the bridge up a few turns and just see what happens..stranger things have happened might just get bang on in tune again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrorod Posted June 29, 2013 Share Posted June 29, 2013 At least United didn't break my guitar. B) My son took the SG Classic with him when he when he was station in Anchorage Alaska with the Air Force. My wife flew out to visit him and he wanted her to bring the guitar back with her saying he rarely played it and that somehow the neck got warped. When she got it home today, I took a look.... The strings are basically sitting on top of the fretboard and also touching the bridge pickup. Part of the problem seems to be that the bridge is set all the way down against the body. I don't think my son would have messed with the adjustment. I know Alaska weather is harsh but damn.... I'm thinking I shouldn't even attempt to adjust this and just take it straight to a pro. What do you all think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EVOL! Posted June 29, 2013 Share Posted June 29, 2013 I would try raising the bridge and seeing how it goes. Hard to injure a guitar doing that. It still may need a truss rod tweak and intonation adjustment and at that point you can take her in. I would advise at least learning how to intonate your guitar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bender 4 Life Posted June 29, 2013 Share Posted June 29, 2013 loosen the strings nice & loose & try one full turn + 1/2 on each bridge adjuster...retune it, check your action height, & adjust from there......lots of good "setup" pages on this forum & Gibbys website. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saturn Posted June 29, 2013 Author Share Posted June 29, 2013 Thanks. I know how to do basic set up on my guitars, but I've only ever tweaked the truss rod. If the neck is as far out of whack as it seems, it might need some serious turning. I think I will let it sit in this weather for a few days and then raise the bridge first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjsinla Posted June 29, 2013 Share Posted June 29, 2013 Unless the neck is visibly bowed backwards, all you probably need to do is raise the bridge. Get the strings to a useable height, then check your neck relief. If the neck is bowed back, loosen the truss 1/4 turn and check again. My bet is that the bridge was lowered somehow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badbluesplayer Posted June 29, 2013 Share Posted June 29, 2013 Yup. It looks like somebody just lowered the bridge and the tailpiece. That's what happens when somebody fiddles around with the bridge nuts with the strings on and doesn't really know how to get the thing back up after they screw it down. You can loosen the strings, raise both the bridge and the tailpiece until it looks right, retune the strings and then go from there. The bridge looks like it needs to go up about the width of the adjusting nut - about 1/8 inch or a little more. Keep adjusting the bridge until the action's good when you retighten the strings. Raise the tailpiece about 1/4" on the low E side and about 1/8" on the high E side. The angle that the strings make over the the bridge should be about the same as the angle where the strings go over the nut - like about 15 degrees. So once you get the bridge right, you'll want to fine tune the stopbar height on each side so that the break angle is about right for all the strings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted June 29, 2013 Share Posted June 29, 2013 It comes back to what I've hollered about for ages: climate affects wood, which means it affects guitars. Good luck on getting it back into playing shape! m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RowdyMoon Posted June 30, 2013 Share Posted June 30, 2013 climate affects wood, Good luck on getting it back into playing shape! m There's a dirty joke in there somewhere but I'll be good.. :-" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saturn Posted July 5, 2013 Author Share Posted July 5, 2013 Update for anyone who cares... I did raise the bridge and stop bar enough to bring the strings off the neck. I also adjusted the truss rod. First I increased relief which seemed to make it worse, so I took it the other way which helped. Also set intonation. Now it plays pretty good but still has a slightly "pinched" sound down below the 12th fret. On another note, I had forgotten how much better my Les Paul sounds un plugged than the SG. Plugged in it sounds fine, but un plugged the SG with it's plank of wood just sounds brash for lack of a better word. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badbluesplayer Posted July 5, 2013 Share Posted July 5, 2013 Update for anyone who cares... I did raise the bridge and stop bar enough to bring the strings off the neck. I also adjusted the truss rod. First I increased relief which seemed to make it worse, so I took it the other way which helped. Also set intonation. Now it plays pretty good but still has a slightly "pinched" sound down below the 12th fret. On another note, I had forgotten how much better my Les Paul sounds un plugged than the SG. Plugged in it sounds fine, but un plugged the SG with it's plank of wood just sounds brash for lack of a better word. Great! You can check the relief and readjust it as necessary. If you fret any of the strings at both the first and fifteenth frets there should be just a tiny amount of relief - like the width of a piece of paper or less. You have to adjust the relief first, and then adjust the action (the height of the bridge) once the relief is right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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