bends dont work?

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Puke+Cry
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bends dont work?

Post by Puke+Cry » Sun Feb 18, 2007 3:21 am

this is very strange. on my jazzmaster, from the 12+ fret extreme bends dont work,  the sounds cuts out and theres nothing.

wtf? i tried lifting the bridge and everything but it didnt work.

help me
Last edited by Puke+Cry on Sun Feb 18, 2007 3:27 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Naturality
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Re: bends dont work?

Post by Naturality » Sun Feb 18, 2007 5:31 am

The action is too low, so that when you put more tension on the strings, the string is pulling right into the fret. The only resolve is to over adjust your truss rod so that the neck is lower on the high e string side. Or raise your action. Either way, the Jazzmaster really isn't a good guitar for extreme bends

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Re: bends dont work?

Post by Superfuzz » Sun Feb 18, 2007 5:47 am

Naturality wrote: The action is too low, so that when you put more tension on the strings, the string is pulling right into the fret. The only resolve is to over adjust your truss rod so that the neck is lower on the high e string side. Or raise your action. Either way, the Jazzmaster really isn't a good guitar for extreme bends
Are you sure that it's possible to do that with a truss rod? ???
For what I knew the truss rod has something to do with the concavity of the neck...

However..the solution is raise the action, the problem is due to the fretboard radius, the more is round the more you need an high action to do extreme bendings, that's why shredders use guitars with almost flat fretboard profile.
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Re: bends dont work?

Post by Naturality » Sun Feb 18, 2007 5:56 am

I managed to do that on my SG copy, so I don't see why it would be a problem

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Re: bends dont work?

Post by fullerplast » Sun Feb 18, 2007 5:58 am

Then the SG rod must be broken or something....   

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Re: bends dont work?

Post by Puke+Cry » Sun Feb 18, 2007 6:06 am

and yeah another strange thing is that my high e has different tension than the other strings.  its really weird.

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Re: bends dont work?

Post by mezcalhead » Sun Feb 18, 2007 6:11 am

Naturality wrote: The only resolve is to over adjust your truss rod so that the neck is lower on the high e string side.
What? I don't know how you arrived at any of your diagnosis and advice, but it seems completely wrong to me. You really shouldn't go around advising people to do potentially damaging things to their guitars when you don't know what you're talking about.

Isn't this most likely just fretting out because of the vintage radius?
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Re: bends dont work?

Post by Naturality » Sun Feb 18, 2007 6:13 am

It worked perfectly on my SG copy and that still works fine......

Are you sure we're talking about the same thing here?

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Re: bends dont work?

Post by mynameisjonas » Sun Feb 18, 2007 6:21 am

naturality, the truss rod controls the curvature of the neck, nothing else.

if you managed to over adjust the truss rod and somehow twisting the neck on you SG so that it improved the playability, well you´re a lucky boy. but that´s just not the way a truss rod is supposed to work.

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Re: bends dont work?

Post by mezcalhead » Sun Feb 18, 2007 6:22 am

P+C seems to be saying that when he bends the string a lot (I'm guessing a minor 3rd or more, dunno what "extreme" is exactly) then the string chokes and stops sounding. You'll get this, as Superfuzz says, on a rounded or vintage radius. Higher action will allow the string to bend further before it chokes or "frets out" but it will still happen. Adjusting the truss rod will only help in as much as it changes the action. The only way to get rid of the problem completely would be, as Superfuzz says again, with a flatter radius.

Adjusting the truss rod shouldn't cause one side (treble/bass) of the neck to be higher than the other as the truss rod runs down the centre of the neck, as Jonas said. Over adjusting the truss rod is asking for it to strip out, a fairly big and expensive job to fix.
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Re: bends dont work?

Post by Naturality » Sun Feb 18, 2007 6:25 am

I guess I'm lucky then. Sorry for misadvising you, P+C, it seems that a flatter radius is better than

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Re: bends dont work?

Post by Superfuzz » Sun Feb 18, 2007 6:37 am

Puke+Cry wrote: and yeah another strange thing is that my high e has different tension than the other strings.  its really weird.
If you have the standard JM bridge you should check the height of the first string saddle..if it's too high the tension will be higher and viceversa..if the height is right it may be also due by a bad intonation set up of that saddle..

P.S.
Sorry for my english..I've got some problems in writing this reply :-[
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Re: bends dont work?

Post by Felix » Sun Feb 18, 2007 6:53 am

I had this very same problem of "choking" on the higher frets with my CIJ JM. I first installed a mustang bridge, which really didn't alleviate the problem. It fixed other problems...
Anyway, I installed a shim in the neck pocket, and, very slightly, raised the action on the high e string to stop the choking out effect.

I don't know if that is the best way to explain it, though I have not had a problem with bends since I made those adjustments. I also think your string guage will make a difference. That could just be a theory, but I found that when I moved back to 10 guage flats, I found less problems with my sound. A Jazzmaster can do some great bends, but you need a very good setup to achieve that--with a few alterations to the stock setup, I think I've done that.

Best of luck with it.
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Re: bends dont work?

Post by Puke+Cry » Sun Feb 18, 2007 7:12 am

mezcalhead wrote: P+C seems to be saying that when he bends the string a lot (I'm guessing a minor 3rd or more, dunno what "extreme" is exactly) then the string chokes and stops sounding. You'll get this, as Superfuzz says, on a rounded or vintage radius. Higher action will allow the string to bend further before it chokes or "frets out" but it will still happen. Adjusting the truss rod will only help in as much as it changes the action. The only way to get rid of the problem completely would be, as Superfuzz says again, with a flatter radius.

Adjusting the truss rod shouldn't cause one side (treble/bass) of the neck to be higher than the other as the truss rod runs down the centre of the neck, as Jonas said. Over adjusting the truss rod is asking for it to strip out, a fairly big and expensive job to fix.
okay.  i meant extreme as in high bends.

i'll try to shim the neck, i really couldnt be bothered to before.

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