Jerry's large neck bow

[USBLUES]

I read somewhere that Jerry's guitars were set with a large bow in the neck. What does that do? Why would he want such a large bow? I would think minimizing the bow as much as possible without fret buzz would be ideal.

[Tennessee Jedi]

Never heard that one ... maybe they meant high action ?

[USBLUES]

i'll try to find it, it said very high action and large bow in the neck,

[strumminsix]

You can't play with a large neck bow or when you fret a note on say the 10th fret your ''fret out'' on say the 17th fret.

You can, from there, adjust the action at the bridge. Some folks also have tried shimming their neck for different angles. I've seen it down with a business card. Just a bit was the only thing needed.

[jeager]

Neck Relief is the preferred terminology I believe. Too little and it is hard to get the action set right (fret buzzes etc.) too much and I would bet that adjusting intonation becomes difficult. I have heard that he played with a high action though...

[SarnoMusicSolutions]

Kimock described Jerry's neck relief (bow) to be quite high as well as fairly high action. I guess the action was high enough so that up high it didn't buzz. Kimock also said that Jerry's guitar played more in tune up high on the neck than down low because of this excessive relief (bow).

Waldo may have some details on this.

B

[willmusic]

I read that somewhere too can't remember where. Now it's gonna bother the heck outta me..

[strumminsix]

Kimock described Jerry's neck relief (bow) to be quite high as well as fairly high action. I guess the action was high enough so that up high it didn't buzz. Kimock also said that Jerry's guitar played more in tune up high on the neck than down low because of this excessive relief (bow).

Waldo may have some details on this.

B

Did the guitars get setup for Kimock?

[tcsned]

Too much relief in the neck will cause issues with the frets above 14. Usually folks that like high action prefer a really flat fretboard since you don't really need relief to prevent fret buzz. I don't know what advantage he would gain with an excessive bow in the neck - there's a lot of drawbacks.

[lunasparks]

0.030" relief indicated for Tiger. Would this really be considered a large neck bow?

http://dozin.com/jers/jers/guitars/tiger/info.html

[TI4-1009]

Check Waldo's tiger site- there's a side neck shot about halfway down the page:

http://www.wald-electronics.com/tiger.html

Doesn't look like much of a bow. I never heard that- just the high action. In Brawer's description just above that set of photos he gives the setup specs.

[Grant]

courtesy of waldo - rosebud
http://s60.photobucket.com/albums/h36/w ... C_0015.jpg

1st fret low E - 0.046"
1st fret high E - 0.031"
24th fret low E - 0.125"
24th fret low E - 0.125

pretty damn high

[drewfx]

One reason for using more neck relief is it allows one to pluck much harder without buzzing...

[billy_v]

I saw Jer's guitars at the R&R HOF a few years ago, and stopped in to say Hi to Rosebud in Manhattan last summer. I like way more relief than most folks, too, so I deliberately checked to see the relief on these guitars. It's true; there's a ton of relief in these necks. (Of course, it's been years since Jer had them set up, so who's to say whether they're any longer set up to his preference.) For me, generous relief in the neck allows me to bend strings under those adjacent with more ease than if the strings were closer to the neck. Jer's fingering on the neck was very perpendicular to the fretboard, though, and when I catch close ups of his left hand on video, I can see that the reason it works for me probably isn't the reason it worked for him. I've never run into intonation issues due to the higher action resulting from generous neck relief. Just lucky, I guess. Here's a pic of Rosebud and me, from the NYC exhibit. I was talking to another Head at the museum about Irwin's description of the Rosebud figure as "a skeleton saint in the act of repelling death," and he replied, "Too bad it didn't work for Jerry." Yep, that's true. Visiting Rosebud was like seeing a dear old friend after many years apart. I was verklempt. Wish the museum had thought of a less gallows-worthy method of displaying the Jer Touch Of Grey skeleton, though.

[KCJones]

(Of course, it's been years since Jer had them set up, so who's to say whether they're any longer set up to his preference.)

So true. That's why I don't give much creedance to any presented measurements as being "Garcia's setup". And, I need to do a truss rod adjustment usually once, sometimes twice/year on my guitars simply because climate conditions winter to summer can change the action and neck relief considerably. Therefore, IMHO, any measurements beyond the last time Jerry played those instruments, or current measurements, are simply that, current, and have no historic value.