So I've been feeling brave and adventurous lately. I absolutely love my Ibanez AM77 semi-hollow body, but couldn't help thinking it could stand a few improvements here and there. The first was regarding the action, or string height. It comes with a bridge that is Ibanez version of a Gibson tune-o-matic. I was having problems with fret buzz, so to fix the problem I raised the bridge until the buzzing stopped. While the strings now rang out nice and clean, the high action made it a little more difficult to play. In my research I determined that the most likely cause of my fret buzz was in the neck. On most electric guitars, you don't want your neck 100% straight, you want a little forward bend to allow the strings to vibrate freely when fretted. You can adjust the bow in your neck by tightening or loosening your truss rod. This is a threaded steel rod that runs through the neck of steel stringed guitars to help keep them from warping under the tension of the strings. By tightening the truss rod (righty-tighty) you are bending the headstock backwards(away from the strings) By loosening the truss rod, (lefty-lousy) your are allowing the natural tension of the strings to pull the headstock forward.
Measuring for proper relief is very simple. Place one finger of your left hand on the first fret of the low E string. Place the pinky finger of your right hand on the 14th fret. Now look at the distance between the string and the 6th fret. It should be a little more than the thickness of a business card. Any more or less should require only small adjustments.
A necessary word of caution. If you tighten your truss rod too much, you will crack your neck. That is what we call "very bad"!! Make only minor adjustments. If you have to turn it more than 1 or 2 full rotations, allow your guitar to sit for a couple of days so the wood in the neck can conform to it's new shape. If you felt your neck is too tight but you still have buzzing issues or improper relief, take your guitar to a trained luthier.
Keep rockin'!!
And remember, whether it's learning a new riff or adjusting your truss rod...
Slow is Smooth, Smooth is Fast!!
