Question regarding Neck Resetting

[Jon Bruns]

Hey all, as a new member to the forum I'd like to say I'm pretty excited to have found Frank's websites;

I do have a quick problem, mainly for Frank but obviously open for anyone to answer since I'm sure your experience dwarfs my own.

I've been playing for a few years now, almost exclusively on a $100 dollar guitar that both feels and sounds pretty bad.  As with most guitars of this quality, the action was ridiculously high, which I was able to shrug off for the most part since I started with chords way down on the neck where the action was bearable.  As I began playing more I bought a new saddle and sanded it down, lowing the action a touch.  That's basically the set up to get to where I am now.

After reading a good chunk of Frank's articles, I found both the neck diagnosis and neck reset pages.  I've been gathering all the information I can and after Frank's ruler test I can see that the neck angle is too high (Assuredly not because of pulling over time, but because the guitar was just of poor quality to begin with).  I saw the article where he did a neck reset on a Martin, and after getting a solid feel for the process, I have 2 questions.  One, is resetting (or in this case I guess "setting" would be the right term) the neck the right choice?  As far as I can see, the only others I have are taking the bridge lower (I can't take the saddle down anymore, it's just barely poking above the bridge as is) and buying a better guitar (which as a struggling college student I'm afraid I can't do... not right away, anyway).  Will resetting the neck fix my problem?  In addition, from Frank's method I understand everything well enough, but it seems that if you take off a bit of material under the heel so the neck will set at the right angle, won't this cause the fretboard to be raised slightly from the body? and if so, is it so small of an amount that you can just press it down while gluing and not worry about it?

I apologize if any of these questions are novice or ridiculous; I would also like to say that I'm aware of the risk I run of completely ruining my guitar, especially since I've never done anything like this before, but I've been around the shop and tools most of my life.  These types of projects were what I did growing up, and this is something I'm looking to mainly for experience and fun, and something to do over summer break.  Also, if I completely botch it up it will give me a more pressing reason to buy a nicer guitar, which may be the motivation I need.

Thanks in advance for all the help guys, and I'm glad to be a new member.

jbruns

[Greg Mirken]

One of the ways a manufacturer makes a guitar that can sell for $100 is to drastically simplify the construction process. You are not going to find the type of solid, locking, but complicated dovetail joint that is typical of traditionally built steel string guitars. Most likely the neck is glued flush to the side and reinforced with a couple of dowels. Often a quick-setting but non-reversible glue is used. A traditional reset is not possible. The neck could be sawed off and converted to a bolt-on, or what I have done on the very cheapest of instruments is just saw up through the heel until the truss rod is contacted, clamp the neck back so the saw kerf closes up, drill a pilot hole and and drive a long drywall screw through the heel into the neck block. For elegance the screw can be disguised by a strap button.