Seasonal Set-Up Adjustments

[Tom Karol]

I'm fairly comfortable adjusting my own guitars - to a point. I had my 335 clone set-up professionally late last fall - well worth the $40 I paid - the action was dead solid perfect!

But now it's finally spring, and since guitars are (generally) made of wood and steel, things change with seasonal climatic conditions.

Yesterday, I noticed too much buzzing on the bottom E string around the lower middle portion of the neck (Ab was the worst offender). Last night I raised the bass side of the TOM 1/4 turn - Better, but not quite as 'perfect'.

So today, I loosened the truss rod 1/8 turn - great!

Tonight, I'll see if I can lower the bridge back down 1/8 turn or so.

I'm not saying I'm a rocket surgeon or anything, but I am sort of pleased with myself ... and my guitar!

[NiAg]

Sounds normal to me.

In the dry winter (in a continental climate) the FB shrinks relative to the neck. As we re-humidify in the spring, the FB swells relative to the neck. (Both the neck and the FB swell and shrink seasonally here in the northeast. It is typical for the FB to move a bit more than the neck.)

Ebony typically does this to a greater extent than rosewood.

Many necks do the seasonal rhumba w/o any need for a truss adjustment.

The most typically reactive configuration is a long maple neck, well clear of the body (like on a 335), with an ebony FB. But even many of those can stay stable through the seasons, while a more stable configuration will need a tweak in the late fall and late spring.

All in my opinion.

>>> but I am sort of pleased with myself ... and my guitar!

Well that pretty much means 100% success I think.