$700 guitar review, LP Ultra II ...fret buzz or high action??? W T Hell

[toneCeker]

THis is my new guitar.. this guitar is goreous, its light, i mean LIGHT, did I say light? I ment light..lol and the body cutout is what ive been looking for in a les paul for years, they finally did it, a light comfy les paul! The nano mag is super sweet it sounds o so like an acoustic very very versatile guitar I could go on and on about features but.....Just one thing. This neck buzzes like crazy. Im so confused, im no beginer at this neck and setup thing, but someone out there knows more than me.... I take a straight edge to the frets and they are as level as water in a pan, there IS proper relief in the neck, and the nut groves seem to be as low as they can be filed, not sure about that though. anyway well my strings are sitting about 3 to 3.5mm off the 12th fret and STILL BUZZING uuuuuggh what can I do???? THis is killer, I would like to have it close to my other guitars , around 2mm or a little less, im not looking for rediculously low action but I cant deal with this super high action. It seems that Epi has gotten to the point where all these other big names have..your paying for a NAME..I bought an agile a while back ($280) and its neck was better than any epi ive picked up and on par with gibson necks. anyway I appreciate ANY input Thanks guys oh and I have 10s on it.

[RotcanX]

I take a straight edge to the frets and they are as level as water in a pan' date=' there IS proper relief in the neck

[/quote']

If the frets are perfectly level then there is no relief in the neck at all. No wonder it's buzzing.

[toneCeker]

when there is no relief the frets are level, but I have adjusted the rod so that there is about .5 to 1mm space when fretted at the first and 20th fret, I have no explination for this buzzing. my squire tele has waaay better action than this. Im not epi bashin at all, i love them but I might have gotten a bad egg. Idont know](*,)

[toneCeker]

I think I might know what is going on. I think that the angle of the neck relitive to the body is off. My squire telecasters neck has NO relief and there is only slight slight buzz if any and the action is about 1.5mm off the 12th, when I compare the necks the squires neck looks like its got a slight angle upwards and the LPs neck is sraight or has a slight angle down. how can this be though its a frickin $700 guitar, Is there ANY way to fix this?? please help someone???

[dubstar]

sounds like you are talking about "neck pitch"...the necks are supposed to be different...the design is intentionally

different and that's part of the reason why fenders have straight headstocks and gibsons have angled headstocks...

see page 72 in tony bacon / dave hunter's "totally guitar" for a diagram and description...

 

you should just take it in for a set-up, most new guitars need one...

[Ricochet]

when there is no relief the frets are level' date=' but I have adjusted the rod so that there is about .5 to 1mm space when fretted at the first and 20th fret,

[/quote']

 

Sounds about right. All my guitars are set up like this. Action is 2 - 3 mm from the 12th fret. So where exactly do you get fretbuzz?

[toneCeker]

Im getting buzz all the way up the neck from the first to the last even slightly on the lower open notes. See the reason this buzz is getting to me is that the nano mag is a very sensative pickup and its actually a powered preamp and this makes the ANY fret buzz quite noticable, when using only the nano. I know that there is going to be buzz, I Guess I just expected the impossable. but I have other guitars that dont buzz like this, cheaper ones at that.

[Ricochet]

Im getting buzz all the way up the neck from the first to the last even slightly on the lower open notes.

 

That sounds more like you may have a problem with the nut or your bridge(saddles). If I were to make an estimated guess(from here) I'd say it's a badly cut nut.

[toneCeker]

MAn that sounds painful!!!lol well it seems that it is not a problem I can fix. This really sucks I would expect that this guitar would have been an out of the box tonemaster but it seems that I will need to invest more to get what I want.

[TheX]

This really sucks I would expect that this guitar would have been an out of the box tonemaster.

 

Welcome to the world of off the shelf guitars. Made in a factory and shipped to you (or a store that could care less about setup) ready to be set up by someone that knows what the hell they're doing.

[Ricochet]

I would expect that this guitar would have been an out of the box tonemaster but it seems that I will need to invest more to get what I want.

 

If it's any consolation. My Gibson LP Custom came with the worst setup on any guitar I have ever bought.

[Dave]

.5mm to 1mm is way too much neck relief. You should be somewhere in the neighborhood of 0.00" to 0.25" at the 8th fret when fretted at the first and 16th (whatever fret joins at the body...mine is the 16th). I would also put new strings on it before I decided that the neck was causing buzz. Ocassionally, I get a bad set of strings where one or more buzz. When this happens, I change that one out. If it fixes the problem, I change the rest of the set. It happens more than you'd think.

 

The LP will have a higher setup than a Strat. My Strat will go very low and still be playable. On the LP, I generally set the string height where a bend will push the next string out or the way. If I set up too low, a bend results in my finger going over the next string. I don't like that.

[Ricochet]

.5mm to 1mm is way too much neck relief. You should be somewhere in the neighborhood of 0.00" to 0.25" at the 8th fret when fretted at the first and 16th

 

If fretted at 1st and 22th leaves .5 mm... it translates to .25 when fretted at 1st and 16th. Granted' date=' I just "eye" it so to speak, but I wouldn't call it [i']way[/i] too much...

 

A little relief shouldn't give the OP the buzz problem he's experiencing.

[Rockin_Dude]

I would have to say,That your new guitar needs a good set-up.

First and for most don`t compair your fender to an epi for set-up.sorry doesn`t fit.

SO yes a setup on your epi is needed.Tech`s do more on a setup then people know.

it`s not just look at the neck and put new strings on or set the intonation

About 22 step to do a good setup.So if you have set up your fender.Then you`ll find

settting up a epi is a little bit different ..

[toneCeker]

" I would also put new strings on it before I decided that the neck was causing buzz. "

 

Well as I stated before, Im not a beginer at this. I know for sure it is the neck, I changed the strings to classic ernie ball regular slinky 10 gauges as soon as I got it. Strings are not the problem. but Thanks for your input.

[RotcanX]

I have to agree with Ricochet on this one; sounds like a good opportunity to go for a bone nut upgrade. Open string buzzing is usually a matter of a too low nut. Action should be 1/16" (1.6 mm) on the treble side and 3/32" (2.4 mm) on the bass side at the 12th fret; any lower than this is outside of 'warranty' spec. Usually you need a fret leveling job to go below these numbers. FYI relief should be checked at the first and 17th frets; measure the distance at the eighth fret.

[RotcanX]

.5mm to 1mm is way too much neck relief. You should be somewhere in the neighborhood of 0.00" to 0.25"

 

Did we just switch from metric to imperial in mid-sentence? A quarter of an inch relief? :D

[51xt33]

I had mine set up by the guitar shop I bought it from. Plays very well. If I buy from a shop, I use a free set-up as part of my price jockeying.

I've changed the to a preslotted graphtech nut on a couple of my Sq****s (51s and Teles). It's not that hard to do, just take your time and make sure you don't damage the stock nut. You'll want to use it as an initial guide for heigth.

[Manimal]

I agree that $700 is not exactly cheap for a guitar. What I also agree with is that where this guitar was shipped to you in it's unopened box, you will most likely never have a perfect set-up, and especially not set-up to your exact specs. If I were you, I would not even stress out about it and I would hand the keys over to a decent tech to have them get it totally right. Out of sight out of mind. Then, if it still isn't right, then you've got an issue. Then have the company you bought the guitar from not only exchange the guitar they shipped to you, but also have them eat the set-up charge. They'll do it.

 

All said and done, you have a beautiful guitar there! Very versatile! And hey, most of us do mods and upgrades when we don't even have to! What a great place you're in now to maybe "have to" get a bone nut installed! Sounds good to me anyway.

[toneCeker]

Well thanks for everyone's input, I think I might go for a black graphtech nut (thats what came on my agile stock). And I dont think I will change it myself. I do all my other guitar work. Ive never had anyone else touch my guitars, but it seems now that this is a neccessary step.....what is entailed it a nut change? CAN I do it myself?

[51xt33]

I'm a "regular" on the Squier 51 Modders Forum. If you search there, there are some pretty detailed instructions; which is where I ran across this Spacklehoss. Very detailed instructions. Just remember that you're working on an Epi, not a '51 so nut width and string spacing and what have you will be different.

 

http://spacklehoss.com/squier51nutjob/index.html

 

Of course there is the reliable Stew Mac also

 

http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/I-5350.html

 

Hope this all helps.