Are neck jigs necessary?

[Dave Yelverton]

Can someone enlighten me? In my woeful ignorance, I've been doing fret jobs and setups for over 30 years WITHOUT a neck jig! Despite the fact that I have never had a dissatisfied customer, I have been told that I cannot perform a PERFECT fret job without paying Stew-Mac £230 + postage for four bits of wood, a few screws and a couple of dial gauges ....and a further £60 to British Customs, which I would bitterly resent! I know William Cumpiano is slightly scathing about neck jigs, I don't know what Frank Ford uses, but I don't think I have seen it mentioned in his pages.
The only advantage I can see is the "WOW!" factor, when the customer walks in the shop and thinks. "this guy's really hi-tec!". It pays to generate mystique!
Anyone care to set me straight?

[William F.Eden]

Keep your money in your pocket & keep doing what you have been Dave. If you like the Jig take a picture of it and tell your Customers this is how I set up your Guitar . Bill.""""""""""""""""""

[Bob Webster]

I side with Bill. I'm always looking for better, quicker, surer ways of doing things and, every once in a great while, I fall prey to JIG ENVY. If you're still thinking about getting one of these in a few days, tell us. and Bill and I will organized an intervention. Just keep up the good work.

Bob

[Dave Yelverton]

Know what you mean, Bob! I gues if I'd bought every jig I 'needed' I could wave goodbye to any profit margin!
As I see it, there are only two reasons for using a jig, accuracy and speed. I'm a great browser of catalogues, but usually for ideas..I've copied quite a few ides for jigs and tools and made them myself for a fraction of the price, but only where I see an absolute necessity for them. I can't see any difficulty in making a reasonable facsimile of a neck jig, but until now I haven't seen the need. But can anyone tell me in all honesty that it does a better job? or even that it does what it says? To simulate string tension, forces are applied at right angles to the neck, yet the string tension force operates at a few degrees from the fingerboard, exerting mostly compression on the neck with a small turning moment at the nut. How accurate can this 'simulation' be?

[Cliff Morris]

You could really impress your customers with your hi-tech savvy and send it out to have it PLEKed......Ah yeah, another overkill way to use a computer for something that can be done easier and less expensive the old way. Then again maybe I'm just a dinosaur.

[Dave Yelverton]

Fascinating! Just had a look at this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG4BOLlKOb4

It's a definite must-have ! So, let me see, if I did 2 full setups a day for a 5 day working week, let's say 2 weeks off for holidays, how many years would it take to break even on my investment?

I suppose it's good for achieving a quick an accurate initial setup when the guitar is new but 6 months down the line the guitar's going to need setting up again

[Fred Riggen]

Neck Jig tutorial with pic's
If anyone is interested here is a file I downloaded a few years ago. I never built it. At 68yrs old teach an old dog new tricks ??? Fred Riggen

[Jeffrey L. Suits]

No. The whole thing is overfussing.

Reading the back of the neck, to see what's going on with the fingerboard? Re-read Don Teeters' books.

I level with U-stock & PSA sandpaper, strings on, fingerboard as flat as it'll get.

Don't EVEN get me started, on, "plek"!

[Cliff Morris]

Really? I'd love to hear your opinion on PLEC or PLEK or whatever the correct way is. I have sort of a one article promoting it understanding of the process but I'm very suspicious of hi tech solutions to old tech problems.

[Jeffrey L. Suits]

Easy: Expensive, high-tech guitar repair snake oil.

[Dave Yelverton]

Thanks to everybody for your opinions. Mostly my own feelings are confirmed, but I would have been interested to have heard from someone who used neck jigs and had positive experiences to report so that I had a balance.

Thanks also to Fred. The Matt Vinson link was very helpful; I may just build one as relatively cheap experiment. I could always re-use the dial indicators on other jigs if I decide to junk it!.
Jeffrey, I had been meaning for a long while to get Don Teeter's book on acoustic guitar maintenance, so I appreciate you giving me the impetus to get off my butt and order it!
The reason I am so concerned with this issue, which never troubled me before, is that a new guy has set up in town, offering 'super-accurate' setups with the aid of this jig. Whilst I have no worries about the loyalty of my current customers, this guy's advertising puts him in direct competition for new customers, especially the more tech-minded!

[Bob Webster]

God, don't you just hate disruptive technology?

Bob

[Ron Frazier]

Years ago when this thing came out I made one . You need to strap the guitar into the jig and put all the posts under the places and it works great! BUT It takes a lot of time setting it up and I have found a better way!!!

About this time I read in one of Martin guitars literature about how they set up a new guitar. It is faster and better and time is money!!

They said they use a 10 pound weight on the body of the guitar to simulate string tension. Then the set it up and hang the guitar for a week then check the set up then ship. Taylor guitar says we do so good a job we ship right after set up and our necks never change! I wonder what all the fancy adjusting wedges are for if it is never used!!

I have come up with the simplest and cheapest set up jig . I support the neck under the nut and the tail of the guitar and I have made a weight of 2 PC of lead that weigh 6 labs with a strap between them and I lay it at the end of the finger board and hang over the sides so it is all out of the way. Before adding the weight and while the strings are tuned to pitch I check the fingerboard for straightness . I use a thin 12 inch stainless ruler and stand it on edge and wiggle it back and forth and it will tell you if it is bowed up down and is there is a high fret. I then cut all strings off then add the weight and adjust the truss rod to make the neck as flat as possible. I then use a blue felt marker and run it down all frets then I use a straight flat board with sandpaper on both sides and use it to sand or level the frets so a shinnie spot is seen on each fret. Yo will be surprised at how unlevel lever all fingerboards are. I then string up the guitar with the weights off and tune to pitch and check with my ruler to see how level the fret board is and then adjust the truss rod to as much relief or none you want. Of course you then adjust the string height at the nut and the saddle to your or their liking.

Hope this helps. Feel free to contact me with any other questions.

Ron