Neck positioning during fret work?

[David Edward Helmer]

Hey everyone. I was reading Erlewines repair guide and he was discussing using bags of shot on both sides of the FB tongue while supporting the headstock on acoustic, to mimick string tension during a dress. Anyone do this? It said each bag weighs 6 pounds. How much tension is on an electric? And how much weight would act as string tension on an electric?

Thanks in advance.
Dave

[Jeff Highland]

David , That's a particularly useful technique for use on older Martins and others with a non adjustable truss rod (or none at all)

Wouldn't bother on an electric or an acoustic with a functional  adjustable rod

[Paul Verticchio]

+1 on Jeff's advice.

Now if you dress out an acoustic w/o a working adj. truss rod, Dan's method is sage.  The "precise" weight of the items used to induce relif into the neck, in a 'perfect world", would vary from guitar to guitar based upon the density of their individual necks. Personally, I'd do a simple setup on the guitar and take super accurate measurements of the "pre-dress" action. noting especially the neck's relief. This will establish your "target" measurement.  BTW: if you don't do it like that, you'll just be 'guessing' at your desired results.

If you experiment with this, and you should as part of your "problem solving" education, let us know your results?

Best of luck,

Paul