RK Talks

Three more added today…

Lark S
Pretty Lady
and the stunning Lady In Red

Just added to the gallery:

Davies Baby
Patty David built for Patty David Band
Sonic
Rufus

More coming soon!

10 new guitars added to the Gallery including

Black Cherry
Big Ric
Adair Affair
Georgie
Jarins Baby
Lark
MiCawburrrrr
N-ville Plus
Ronnies Wonder
and Barden T

Enjoy!

4 new guitars added to the gallery

Bound Tele
Sunburst 2
Daphne 2
Thin Line

Two new guitars have been added to the Gallery.

Mary Kaye
Red Flame Tele

Most guitar manufacturers will ship a guitar, a rather expensive guitar without a complete setup. This is analogous to you arriving at the local BMW dealership to take delivery of your new M3 and find it sitting in the lot running horribly, only to be told that a precision tune up will cost you a few thousand bux more, it’s not part of the $50,000.00 you already paid.

Delivering a guitar not setup to optimum performance is delivering a guitar that is not completely assembled. That is why every guitar I modify; every one I build receives a complete fret leveling, crowning and professional setup. It is ready to take on tour.

Here’s a word about the setup so you can check your present guitar.

A neck with the truss rod correctly adjusted when the strings are tuned to tension will have a very slight concave bow. If you fret a string, say G 3rd at the 1st fret and again at the 21st, there should be about .015 clearance at around the 8th fret. That’s about the thickness of a business card.

To optimize the setup you must also address the nut, the strings should have about the same clearance when open at the 1st fret as they would have the 2nd fret if you have fretted ‘em at the first.

Once those two are done, and assuming you have level frets, you may lower the bridges until you have about .035 clearance at the 21st fret. That’s about the thickness of a well worn dime.

Now, action that low is great if you have a soft touch. . . but if you’re a head bangin’ shredder, you’re gonna have to crank the bridges up a tad to keep ‘em from buzzin’.

Now about those level frets… every neck made must have the frets leveled and crowned to achieve optimum action. Why? ‘Cause the wood is different densities in different locations as the frets are pressed into the fingerboard. It doesn’t matter if you use a computer driven press, a brass hammer or a scary look, they are going to seat at different heights, often no more than .001, which you cannot see when eyeballin’ it down the fingerboard.

If the 15th fret is .001 inch higher than the 14th fret, (that’s about ½ the diameter of a human hair) you will have to raise the string to over 1/16 inch and more like 3/32 inch at the 21st fret to keep the string from buzzing if played at the 14th… so.. Leveling ‘em is paramount if you’re gonna have it as fast as possible.

Ron Kirn