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Comment by Pete Handy on October 21, 2009 at 10:41pm

Wow
Thank for the advice guys. The guy in the shop has done repairs for years ( professional name 'The guitar Doctor') I have done a few set-ups and find it rerwarding to get a guitar to be easier to play and still sound good. I'm not a guitarist but I generally have one handy to strum on. Most guitars seem to have too much relief for my liking. I set the neck virtually straight then see what happens once the string tension is on. They sometimes need a further tweek or two, but I find the straight neck a good starting point.
This neck will come forward a little more but you can see the undualtions in the fret height when you look down it. I do have a whetstone or oilstone , not sure which, for sharpening chisels, however aren't profiling tools a little expensive? Hmm maybe find a luthier night class?
The only time I had problems with a truss rod was with an old acoustic and the rod had seized up, (trying to adust a siezed rod can strip the thread, round off the bolt/hex drive ,or twist the neck). I raised the LP bridge on it's adjusters by around 1/8" inch and the buzzing has almost gone so it may be do-able with a little more fettling. It will never be a macaferri or whatever but it's nice and light, short scale, and it's just a handy size and weight to carry around. Cheers!

Comment by Roosterman on October 21, 2009 at 10:28am

Interesting point mentioned there - lots of folk are dubious about messing with the truss rod. The truss rod is your friend, and its there to be used as need be.
Really, there is nothing too them - reading up should take approx 5 minutes as there isnt a lot to say about them! Only rule is dont do too much at once - a quarter of a turn makes a world of difference, and can cure a lot of ills :o)
Im not saying thats the case in Petes situation, but its very helpful if you can tweak it if need be!

Dadgad - well i use that on my acoustic but never thought to try it on a slider! Great idea!

Comment by Sherb on October 21, 2009 at 8:38am

Any northereners know the Curry mile in Rusholme Manchester? Curry house after neon Curry house as far as the eye can see. Now that would be a good location for a northern meet! :-)

Comment by Sherb on October 21, 2009 at 8:34am

I like Davy Grahame's open tuning of DADGAD its usually played finger style but sounds interesting and different with slide...... give it a try.

Comment by ChickenboneJohn on October 21, 2009 at 8:22am

From what you've just said, all this needs is that the frets need levelling. Take no notice of what the guy in the shop says, I'm pretty dismissive of most music shop advice when it comes to guitar set-up - a proper luthier I might listen to, but having a cheap guitar refretted isn't worth it unless you do it yourself. I use a regular rectangular stone (that you use for sharpening chisels etc, about 6 x 2x1inch) to level the frets, but a good flat file will work too, then reprofile the frets and polish with wire wool. As Ben says, use a fretguard so you don't marr the fretboard.

Only ever do one job at a time..so level the frets then tweak the trussrod.

For open tunings the two classic ones are open G (DGDGBD) or open D (DADFsharpAD).... low to high. Classic 'dobro' tuning is high bass G, GBDGBG. There are many many more, but open D and open G will get you a long way. Each has it's own 'flavour', so experiment to find out what they can do for you.

Comment by Mark on October 21, 2009 at 8:07am

For tunings try starting with the following:

Open G = DGDGBD (ie. tune both 'E' strings and the 'A' string down 2 semitones),
Open D = DADF#AD (ie. both 'E' strings and the 'B' string down 2 semitones and the 'G' string down 1 semitone)

If you're going to have a go at the frets I'd suggest getting a proper stone rather than sanding them (not expensive). Also, go careful if you're thinking of adjusting the trust rod. If you've not done these sorts of jobs before then it's probably best to read up on the techniques before charging on in.

Comment by Roosterman on October 21, 2009 at 7:50am

Pete, have you tweaked the truss rod at all? If im understanding this all correctly, the neck isnt banana shaped, its just that you get some fret buzz? If so, jack up the nut end by adjusting the truss, raise the bridge, and gradually lower until you start to get buzz again. Invest a couple of quid or make a fretboard guard and do a little filing. Iv never come accross fret buzz that cant be fixed with the truss rod, the bridge and a good file!
If you are dead set against doing it, yup, I go with John - open tune sliding! (I use D on mine, but you can use anything you like and its easy to do - if you have a normal tuned guitar, play the chord you want to imitate. Then one by one correlate the fingered note to the correlating string on the slider. Its a mess on I guess, but if you dont know what the notes are - like me - it works!) .
Good luck :o)

Comment by Pete Handy on October 21, 2009 at 7:00am

What tuning would you reccomend if playing a six siring in open tuning and just using a slide?

Comment by Pete Handy on October 21, 2009 at 6:58am

I'm not too good with pics but I'll try and get a photo. The action was nice and low but the frets are uneven, A couple high and obe too low. This caused buzzing on the frets 10 and up. I was told by a repair man that it was unrepairable without a re-fret. I highered the action today and it plays a little better. The neck may need a little more relief, I may try that next.
I may also try sanding the frets down a bit to level them off. Thanks for the advice.

Comment by Roosterman on October 21, 2009 at 1:24am

Curry is a general term we apply to all spicy / hot dishes of Indian origin Brian, usually accompanied by nan breads or rice, and always taken with a cold bottle Kingfisher beer!

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