Neck Relief on PRS guitars

[Justin Bamford]

Curious where others set the neck relief on their guitars. I have a SS and 594 and they both came with drastically different neck relief, with the SS @ .005” and the 594 @.010” . PRS suggests .005-.010” so they are both in that range but I guess I can’t figure out the optimal setting for my playing. Every tech I’ve brought it to sets the neck super flat and although I enjoy the easy playing, I feel tone and my ability to bend suffers so I end up adding a little relief so it’s closer to .010”

I tend to play blues rock with medium gain and do lots of bending and heavy vibrato. Does that style generally need more relief?

 

[alantig]

There are people who say that you "need" that extra relief to get under the strings for bending. There are other people who don't.

It's all what works for you. If the action has to be a little higher than someone else suggests, so be it. SRV played .013 gauge strings, Rev. Billy Gibbons plays .007s. Who's right? The correct answer is yes. There is no universally correct guitar or setup for any given style. It's all about the player.

If it works for you, it's good.

 

[Warmart]

I don't measure, I just capo at 1st, finger at last until there's just the barest little bit of tap of string movement in the middle of the board.

 

[JasonE]

I usually set my neck relief pretty low. I am probably around that .005" range. I set up all of my guitars this way regardless of brand. I have been doing them this way for years. It is all about string height from there. I find that every guitar has a preference on string height. I usually end up around .050" at the 12 fret. Some are a little less and some a little more. It is all dependent on string buzz, full step bends and ease of bending. This is where some of the variation comes in. I need to be able to get a full step bend without the note choking out at all. I find that once I get the string in the area that the guitar likes it, the bends are easier to perform.

 

[Justin Bamford]

I usually set my neck relief pretty low. I am probably around that .005" range. I set up all of my guitars this way regardless of brand. I have been doing them this way for years. It is all about string height from there. I find that every guitar has a preference on string height. I usually end up around .050" at the 12 fret. Some are a little less and some a little more. It is all dependent on string buzz, full step bends and ease of bending. This is where some of the variation comes in. I need to be able to get a full step bend without the note choking out at all. I find that once I get the string in the area that the guitar likes it, the bends are easier to perform.

Thanks for the input! What style do you play? I feel when I have it set at .005” it seems like it would only work for shredders at high gain. I feel like I lose dynamics on a cleanish tone and the notes have less bloom and sound plinky

 

[JasonE]

Thanks for the input! What style do you play? I feel when I have it set at .005” it seems like it would only work for shredders at high gain. I feel like I lose dynamics on a cleanish tone and the notes have less bloom and sound plinky

I am definitely not a shredder or high gain player. I am more of a clen to medium gain player. I would probably say more rock, country and blues type of player. I always make sure I can do a full step bend without affecting the ringing of the strings. If it chokes out, something isn't adjusted correctly.

 

[Rider1260]

I usually adjust guitars will as little relief as possible for the guitar to play well, and it varies by guitar , tho all my PRS have minimal relief.
This is a interesting video from Stew Mac about setting neck relief.

 

[Perry]

Thanks for the input! What style do you play? I feel when I have it set at .005” it seems like it would only work for shredders at high gain. I feel like I lose dynamics on a cleanish tone and the notes have less bloom and sound plinky

You’ve answered your own question Justin. No neck relief is great for shredders and legato playing. For the rest of us, we like to hear notes ring out clear with a nice bloom on longer notes. I set my relief by eye, holding the D string down at the first fret and the fret where the neck meets the body (and therefore where the truss rod underneath the fingerboard usually ends). I like to see just a little ‘bounce’ when pressing the string down above the 9th fret. I guess this equates to around 0.008”.