This works on pretty much any bolt-on style guitar, though those with tremolos seem to benefit the most. My telecaster-style did also benefit somewhat as well.
1. Make sure your guitar is in standard tuning.
2. Loosen all of the neck plate screws a couple quarter turns -- just enough to loosen the connection a bit. You may hear some 'creaking', don't freak out.
3. Your guitar is now flat. Retune it to standard, making sure the neck is in proper adjustment. Check once more that it's in tune before moving to the next step.
4. Retighten the screws (make sure you're not over-tightening them..)
5. Your guitar is now sharp. Retune to your preferred pitch. You might now notice a slight improvement in the overall sustain of the guitar as well some increase in body resonance when you pluck the bass strings.
How it works: The strings pull the neck taught against the body, removing any small gaps that may have been present when the neck was initially set.
I tried this on all my bolt ons and it actually does work. It's not going to make any huge, drastic changes, but it does seem that there's a more solid connection between the bodies and their respective necks.
I think it would work; think about it - the string tension is like you pushing the neck when you're screwing it in (which you should be doing) but you're getting all the tension in the right place to bring it "home" as it were.
jcyphe wrote:Maybe CP jaguars, haven't tried them yet, but real jags don't have no sustain.
Part of their charm. I happen to love the sound MBV and Mew get with theirs, and would consider getting a Jag in the future. I think the tune-o-matic bridge is a solution in search of a problem in the case of offsets..
I've just done it on my jag, does make sense but I do wonder if when tightening the screws the neck can somewhat shift back to it's original seating... despite being persuaded. It could also marginally weaken the internal screw threads of the wood, neck or body. Not a real concern really.
Either way, I seem to hear a slight difference.... the body certainly seems more resonant & I don't think that's me just thinking that. I play this guitar on average an hour per day. Thanks for the info.
My Franken-sonic had shit for sustain, but after I gave it a string through body bridge it's faaaaar improved. Not even in the same ballpark. Will try this as well and see if I can get a bit more.
dots wrote:society is crumbling because of asshoels like ends
brainfur wrote:I'm having difficulty reconciling my desire to smash the state & kill all white people with my desire for a new telecaster
I can't post the clip because the stupid dicky iPhone app I recorded it on wants me to pay to transfer the file, but I checked the time the chord rang out for and it was the same on both, around 10 secs.
I was never trying to overstate the benefit this might impart... It would only have a very dramatic effect if the guitar were poorly set in the first place. But for mine it did yield a small yet noticeable improvement.
othomas2 wrote:I've just done it on my jag, does make sense but I do wonder if when tightening the screws the neck can somewhat shift back to it's original seating... despite being persuaded. It could also marginally weaken the internal screw threads of the wood, neck or body. Not a real concern really.
Excellent point, but one that's easily addressed. Do the procedure, tighten the neck up, then repeat it again. If the strings go flat and you hear the same creaking the second time, then you can assume that rescrewing it is undoing the changes.
