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Philj200 - Posted - 09/16/2008: 05:26:48
I had the need for other characteristic of a resonator guiter, volume, the other day. I was going to a large jam where there would be over two hundred musician playing in several groups. It was the Brooklyn Ethical Culture Society annual Bluegrass and Old TIme Festival. This is must even for anyone who can reach BYC in September, by the way.
I knew there would be lots of guitars and banjos... everything else. Among the basses, dobros, mandoilns I saw someone with a musical saw.
My Martin DXM is not a particularly lud guitar to begin with. In an outdoor setting with so many other instruments, I turned to my Oscar Schmitd 8D-8 TS, But this is a pretty fast track and I'm new to dobro playing. So I slipped the detachable nut extender off and hoped to play it as a guitar.
No way. The action passed the first position was simply awful.
Is this common with instruments of this tier? The tension rod is accessible via the tuning board, does anyone recommend attempting to adjest it. .Are there other ways to adjust action on an instrument like this.
It is a round neck, so I assume it is designed for normal playing.
Comments, opinions please.
rexhunt - Posted - 09/16/2008: 12:13:46
The Oscar Schmidt is not a real high end instrument and the round neck was designed with bottle-neck playing in mind anyway. About the only way to lower the action would be either a neck re-set or lowering the bridge inserts if possible. It is also possible but tricky to lower the cone itself. You may also have already put a bit of bow in the neck using the heavier strings used in slide playing. You can adjust the truss rod if you have too much releif but ONLY if there is too much. It is not for adjusting action.
Rex
Philj200 - Posted - 10/10/2008: 07:09:12
Can anyone offer advice on this?
rexhunt - Posted - 10/12/2008: 11:32:53
A good way to check the releif or bow in the neck is to put a capo on the first fret and then fret around the 12th or 14th fret. The string you are fretting then becomes a straight edge and you can visually see how much of bow there might be in the neck or use a feeler guage at the point of the greatest bow. No bow at all is not necessarily a good thing as you will have to have the action higher to prevent buzzes. Too much bow will give you the type of problem you describe. If you have a feeler guage, measure the distance between the string and the 6th or 7th fret. .006 to .012 or thereabouts is probably just fine and you should look to other ways to lower the action. If the bow is much more, tightening the truss rod nut less than a quarter turn at a time should help. It does not take much for a truss rod to do it's work and you can seriously damage your guitar if you aren't careful. There are a lot of good sites on the WEB with info on truss rods and truss rod adjustments.
Rex
Philj200 - Posted - 10/13/2008: 07:26:30
The truss rod on my instrument seems frozen. I can't turn it either way using realistic force. I've adjusted other instruments and know how much to apply. No rotation what so ever. And I won't apply more than I feel is enough. Something is either wrong or it is just there for strenght and not not adjustment.
I subscribe to the StewMac luthiers mailings: They recently had a section on freeing a fronzen truss rod. It required slipping a long rotating drill bit around the truss rod to free what ever was interfering. Of course they would sell the tools and fitting. But this is a somewhate delicate job. And a last resort in my thinking. I haven't invested in tools I might never need again, not reached the point where I've given up, yet.
rexhunt - Posted - 10/13/2008: 15:17:33
I does sound like something's wrong. How bowed is the neck? You might just want to put the nut extender back on and look around for another round neck reso with better action.
Rex
Philj200 - Posted - 10/13/2008: 17:16:39
The neck is not bowed at all. Nada. Zip. Zilch. There is ntohing overtly wrong with the instrument other than the action past first position being too high. The nut extender is back on since I play this instrument slide-style most of the time. The saddle is in a cast metal housing. I assume hat I can remove the cover, remove the saddle and lower it. I can't see any way to adjust it without takign the face of the instrument apart.
And I certainly not buying another instrument until the stock makes my retirement accounts more than a joke... if then.
rexhunt - Posted - 10/14/2008: 02:55:38
The saddle pieces are replaceable parts anyway. You might want to get some better ones anyway - maybe ebony topped - and see how much you can sand off the bottom. Don't be afraid to take off the cover plate, just be careful not to strip out the screw holes when you put it back together. If you do, a flat wooden toothpick will fix it.
Rex
Philj200 - Posted - 10/14/2008: 08:36:30
Experimenting with the saddle will be a soon-to-happen adventure. I'll report back here when the dust settles, literally.
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