Set up question

[jed9]

I am have hit a road block in setting up my new dinky. All the measurements seem about right to me, but I have really bad fret buzz on the low E, A, and D string past the 12th fret. the higher strings are fine. I tried raising the bridge height on the low E side (floyd) but it only helped until I got really high action, especially compared to the higher strings which are level with the nut. I am using 10-52 and they are the "skinny top heavy bottom" type in D standard and sometimes drop C. I think radical string gauges might have something to do with the high action on one side and low on the other. Side question about my relief, I play metal with heavy pick attack and lots of tremolo picking and like a little sustain with the lowest action I can get (not a shredder) is .093 about right?. I am not sure what measurements to include but:
nut .062
6th .093
14th .062
high e .062
low E .031 and still buzzing hard, almost dead when not plugged in

Any ideas? No apposed to a different string gauge, like them thick though (11's?) Thanks guys

[Sunbane]

You probably just need to adjust the neck bow slightly. You will need a 7 mm truss rod wrench to do this.

[Tricky]

Put a capo at 1st fret, fret the low E at 16/17 fret, where the body meets the neck, check relief at 7th with a feeler gauge. .011/.012 should be good with 52s. Open string height at first fret should be .021. You should be able to get close to 3/32-4/32 string height at 17th without buzz. If your getting heavy buzz up top with that setup, then you might check the neck pocket for a shim. If no shim, then the neck may have a hump up high. Very common. If so, frets 13 on up will have to be checked & surfaced down.
Custom builders surface in a little falloff on the board up high before installing the frets on new builds.

[jed9]

Put a capo at 1st fret, fret the low E at 16/17 fret, where the body meets the neck, check relief at 7th with a feeler gauge. .011/.012 should be good with 52s. Open string height at first fret should be .021. You should be able to get close to 3/32-4/32 string height at 17th without buzz. If your getting heavy buzz up top with that setup, then you might check the neck pocket for a shim. If no shim, then the neck may have a hump up high. Very common. If so, frets 13 on up will have to be checked & surfaced down.
Custom builders surface in a little falloff on the board up high before installing the frets on new builds.

Exactly what I was looking for thanks tricky. When you say fret 13 and up might need to surfaced down do you mean a fret level? It looks like (to the eye) that the board does move up twards the 24th fret. How can I tell for sure if there is a hump? height of 12 compaired to 14? Thanks

[Tricky]

You can check it with a strait edge, but if the neck plays clean everywhere except up high, above the 12th, with the setup specs I gave, then it could be a shimmed neck, or it needs some fall off from the 13th on up. Check for shim first.
What happens is, the higher up the neck you play, the less distance there is between frets and to the bridge. Surfacing a little fall off up high gives a little more clearance for the string to vibrate. Fall off meaning, 13th fret a little higher then 14th, 14th fret a little higher than 15th, and so on. So the 24th fret would be a 6-8 thousands lower than the 12th.

[Newc]

If you're using heavy top (E,A,D) strings, angle the bridge slightly so the bass side is slightly higher. This puts the bottom of those strings the same distance away as if you were using the standard gauge.

[jed9]

sweet action (pun intended) it was shimmed. Thanks again for your help

[Tricky]

Cool. Now wear it out.