Setting up my Jazzmaster for the first time

[kgbAttack]

Hi guys,

So I have worked on my Jazzmaster for the first time. As I bought the guitar online I have not had a chance to have it setup to my taste. I didn't have any major complaints except that my action was higher than I wanted it to be. Because the bridge was sitting already very low (approx 2mm from the pickguard), I did not see any other way other than adding a shim.

I measured my action on both strings to be above 2.5mm (.099” approx)

I started by removing the strings, adding a bit of lemon oil to the fretboard, and removing the neck. As I thought, there was no shim - the neck looked pretty much aligned to the body with no break angle. I wanted to minimise raising the bridge, so I added a .25 deg Stew Mac shim.



I sanded the shim and it fit very well in the neck pocket. Before screwing the neck back in, I tightened a tiny bit the truss rod (less than a quarter turn), since my neck relief was approximately .011” and wanted to get it to .010” (without success, as it turned out).

I’ve restrung the guitar with a new set of D’Addario 10-46 Balanced Tension (recommended by a friend, I never used a balanced tension before). As expected, the bridge was now sitting too low for strings to vibrate properly. At the moment, the bridge sits still pretty low as the lowest points of the bridge are at 3mm from the pick guard.



Here’s hopefully you can see the neck curvature. I still measure it between .011” and .012” at this moment. And yes I tightened it and not loosened it (turned it left):


Now, action is pretty comfortable now (btw .070 and .080 on low E, and .070 on high E), but unfortunately I get annoying fret buzz in particular at the 15th fret




The low E buzzes on the 15th fret, G buzzes too, while the high E does not buzz but if I bend one tone from A to B the note is completely chocked. Buzzing is less annoying on frets higher than 15th but still perceptible, while there is no buzz, as far as I could hear, below.

So my questions are:

Did I do anything wrong so far in my operations? If not, should I just raise the bridge further until I hear no buzz? Or is this a matter of neck relief? I really don’t think there’s any lump in the neck nor fret issues, my action ruler did not rock on the frets, also it sounded perfectly fine before except the action was too high.

Maybe my expectations of low action are too high? This guitar has a 9.5” radius. Thanks in advance for any help!

[adamrobertt]

Make sure you don't have too much relief. Too much relief can cause buzzing at the upper frets. If that isn't the problem, you probably have a high fret or two.

Edit: I set my guitars up with as minimal relief as possible - I use a .010'' feeler gauge at the 8th fret to measure, with a capo on the 1st fret and holding down the string that I'm measuring at the 17th fret.

[kgbAttack]

Make sure you don't have too much relief. Too much relief can cause buzzing at the upper frets. If that isn't the problem, you probably have a high fret or two.

Hi Adam,

In laymen's terms: too much relief means I need to loosen or tighten the truss rod? I'm positive there are no high frets.

[adamrobertt]

Make sure you don't have too much relief. Too much relief can cause buzzing at the upper frets. If that isn't the problem, you probably have a high fret or two.

Hi Adam,

In laymen's terms: too much relief means I need to loosen or tighten the truss rod? I'm positive there are no high frets.

It means you need to tighten the truss rod. "Relief" is the amount of backbow in the neck. A very slight amount of relief is necessary and considered standard - both Fender and Gibson spec .010'', which is a very tiny but surprisingly useful amount. Don't try to eyeball it, measuring is necessary.

[kgbAttack]

Make sure you don't have too much relief. Too much relief can cause buzzing at the upper frets. If that isn't the problem, you probably have a high fret or two.

Hi Adam,

In laymen's terms: too much relief means I need to loosen or tighten the truss rod? I'm positive there are no high frets.

It means you need to tighten the truss rod. "Relief" is the amount of backbow in the neck. A very slight amount of relief is necessary and considered standard - both Fender and Gibson spec .010'', which is a very tiny but surprisingly useful amount. Don't try to eyeball it, measuring is necessary.

Ok great - so perhaps the new strings have higher tension than the original ones. I measured it between .011 and .012" so I need probably to tighten it by a quarter turn. Hopefully that solves it

[jorri]

If high frets buzz, then raise the bridge. Nothing particularly unusual going on. Sure, some guitars go lower and some don't, due to fretwork, playing style, the fact most low E strings are floppier than the others, and all that. And it only needs to be low if you want it low; personally I like higher action and bit of resistance.

I think I've always had 16 thou (0.4mm) between 1st and 6th string. That's based on fender measurement guide, or usual sizes of tools so probably arbitrary... But anyway. So 70-86 is not really a problem.

About the truss. 11-12 thou is fine if not ideal. But, sure, give it a try anyway. Do the action again AFTER so that the bridge will be relatively raised still- that's the point of it really. The bridge would be higher for the high frets without affecting low frets too much then. OR if you do it then get buzz on low frets instead it was probably as curved as it should be.

[kgbAttack]

Ok - I'll try to straighten the neck a tiny bit more, and see if I get anywhere. If not, I'll raise the action a bit, and hopefully I won't be getting buzz on lower frets so that I don't have to take out the neck again to loosen the truss rod.

Btw the low E string now touches the Philips screw at the tailpiece - it didn't do it with the original strings and the bridge was sitting lower. Hopefully it is the tailpiece that didn't go back to position, since I will need to re-string I'll check that. I really wish these screws had flatter heads though

[jorri]

Yes they can do that, lots of threads on here about it.

One option is to flip the screw so the head is underneath.

Both the string tension and the size of the windings at the end may be to blame.

But if you can check the windings, they may be able to be rotated. Loosen the string plenty and use an allum key to rotate the ball.

Or failing that have you set the trem tension with the centre screw? because if that changed then the back plate will be in a different position.

[kgbAttack]

Quick update: I guess I was too scared to tighten the truss rod. I turned it just less than a quarter turn, relief is now at .011" and I get less buzz than yesterday but it's not all gone. As I loosened the strings I tried to put the tailpiece in a different place but as I strung the guitar up it got back to where it was - which means the low E still buzzes. Will try again tomorrow - and perhaps will remove the vibrato unit and flip the screw.

[adamrobertt]

Quick update: I guess I was too scared to tighten the truss rod. I turned it just less than a quarter turn, relief is now at .011" and I get less buzz than yesterday but it's not all gone. As I loosened the strings I tried to put the tailpiece in a different place but as I strung the guitar up it got back to where it was - which means the low E still buzzes. Will try again tomorrow - and perhaps will remove the vibrato unit and flip the screw.

There's really nothing to be afraid of. There isn't anything you can do to damage anything unless you just crank and crank and crank until you're at the end of the threads and then you keep cranking until it snaps. A quarter/half turn at a time is a good method but you are probably nowhere near in danger of damaging anything.

[Larsongs]

Nothing to be scared of tightening it a 1/4 or 1/2 turn or more in small increments.. You can always loosen too.

[jorri]

Tighten a bit more for sure.

I presume you have a stock bridge?

A weird thing mine does is when I tilt the outer saddles away from the others, not only less bridge buzz but less Fret buzz. Welcome to the weird setup of jazz masters... Maybe it's a radius thing.

[Larsongs]

To further help you it might be helpful to know which model it is?

[kgbAttack]

Tighten a bit more for sure.

I presume you have a stock bridge?

A weird thing mine does is when I tilt the outer saddles away from the others, not only less bridge buzz but less Fret buzz. Welcome to the weird setup of jazz masters... Maybe it's a radius thing.

I have a different bridge, fortunately no buzzes at the bridge on my end. I can only raise the bridge posts, not the individual saddles, they are matched to the radius and the octaves are pretty good on all strings.

To further help you it might be helpful to know which model it is?

It's a Custom Shop '62 - 9.5" radius, RSD bridge and standard AM vibrato.

[kgbAttack]

Quick update - I tried to work on eliminating the buzz of the low E against the screw by adjusting the spring screw on the vibrato. Boy does that take time. When I tighten the screw and the tremolo arm goes towards the fretboard, the buzz disappears. I had to make multiple corrections by adjusting the screw, re-tune, and test the trem lock. At this point, there is still a tiny bit of upward movement if I de tune the guitar, but it stays in tune -for example-for a drop D tuning. I think I will leave it as is, as the alternative would be to remove the neck entirely and place a thicker shim in the neck pocket. I might as well do that after the next string replacement, but not now.

Hopefully I'll manage to adjust the truss rod today again. I will try to do so without removing the neck entirely. However I am finding contrasting information on which fret should be pressed to measure relief...is it the 17th or 21st? Fender has two how-to pages and they each say a different thing:

Here it says "where the neck joints the body" (17th fret) https://www.fender.com/articles/how-to/ ... ar-or-bass

Here it says "last fret" https://support.fender.com/hc/en-us/art ... -properly-

So far I've always checked at the 17th fret, suggesting I should tighten the neck a minimal amount to get it to .010".