Home › Forums › Discuss Your Gear › Les Paul problems?
- This topic has 16 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 1 month ago by Jordan Sutherland.
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March 23, 2018 at 2:19 pm #95865
Hi,
My guitar is in my local shop getting a service done. I bought it recently and it had some issues with the nut and some other adjustments. Personally I don’t have the knowledge to file the nut down myself so I just handed it into the shop for him to do everything at once.
I got a message today saying it’s been on the bench but it has some further issues which I was not aware of.
The message he sent:
“Couple of fretting issues to make you aware of. The upper frets are ramping upward toward the body like a wee ‘ski jump’ and for it to play it’s best, they would need levelled. On top of that there is a very small undulation/twist (hate using that word) in the Fingerboard which could be sorted by a fret level also. I can do that as part of a Deluxe setup if you wanted me to correct it.”I have never heard of the above issues before! Can anyone shed some light? I’m going down tomorrow to have a look myself so he can explain in person but would like to go down with some knowledge first.
Any thoughts much appreciated!
Jordan
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March 23, 2018 at 3:13 pm #95867
I have a Les Paul and had some very minor problems that where quickly fixed.
I would contact Gibson and have them fix everything. They should and probably will.
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March 23, 2018 at 4:07 pm #95870
Hello,
That “DELUX Setup” sounds like an up-sale to me. -
March 23, 2018 at 4:20 pm #95871
I bought a blemished Ibanez AS152. When it arrived it was very nice. But i took it to a luthier I know. He leveled the frets in about 45 minutes. There were three in a row that were too high.
Now I met this guy at the Dallas International Guitar Show. He was just starting out, so he gave me a very good deal to do this. From your description it sounds very much like what I experienced.
It appears to be about 10-20 bucks a fret. But everything I have read suggests fret leveling is not part of a set-up. It is a separate job.
Good luck.
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March 23, 2018 at 5:55 pm #95881
Is this a new guitar? Is this a Gibson, or a knockoff LP?
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March 23, 2018 at 5:56 pm #95882
Gibson Les Paul Standard 2012
Jordan
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March 23, 2018 at 6:07 pm #95884
Gibson Les Paul Standard 2012
Jordan
It’s possible the guitar got a bit warped– maybe too much humidity at one moment or another. The neck twist would be a good reason the seller was looking to unload it…. I’m guessing there’s no way to send it back and reclaim your money?
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March 23, 2018 at 6:28 pm #95886
The message he sent:
“Couple of fretting issues to make you aware of. The upper frets are ramping upward toward the body like a wee ‘ski jump’ and for it to play it’s best, they would need levelled. On top of that there is a very small undulation/twist (hate using that word) in the Fingerboard which could be sorted by a fret level also. I can do that as part of a Deluxe setup if you wanted me to correct it.”Hey Jordan,
What he is saying about the frets is that they are at different heights going towards the body of the guitar. I did see this once when I was at night school doing a guitar maintenance course so can vouch that it does happen though i cant hazard a guess as to why it happens( poor setups in the past possibly), The course instructor thought that it may possibly need a neck reset..A fret level cured the sloping frets and the guitar played better than ever or at least so said the guy who owned it.
I had similar work done on an Epiphone SG which had developed a slight twist in the neck, I wasn’t experienced enough at the time to do the work myself so took the SG in to Kennys Music and had their Luthier Ian do the work. Total it cost me £85 which was £15 more than I had paid for the guitar .. but we live and learn Kiddo.
Get the work priced up before you give the go ahead. No point in having costly surprises later on..
Hope this helps you man..Billy..
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March 23, 2018 at 7:24 pm #95894
Unfortunately not no. I’ve never come across a “neck twist” before? How do they fix it and does it leave any long term damage? Also what does the frets ramping up mean?
Jordan
Necks are made of wood, and wood continues to move as it ages. One-piece necks are more prone to twisting, since they’re actually less stable than a two- or three-piece neck, since the grain only goes in one direction. Ideally, the finish protects against changes in humidity, but the finish can only do so much: it’s possible the neck wood hadn’t sufficiently dried before the guitar was built, for example.
The twist may have also caused the hump in the fretboard that caused the frets to ramp up. Leveling the frets should be enough to take care of any issues, since there’s usually enough metal to accommodate this.Who is taking care of this guitar? I’d be less inclined to let a tech in a guitar store take care of these issues — they’re good for new nuts and setups, but they’re usually overwhelmed with work. Take the guitar to a luthier for a second opinion.
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March 23, 2018 at 7:36 pm #95897
I use to think I bought gibsons with imperfections,, little did I understand and until I learned how to set up a guitar/it really is all about maintaining a quality build instrument.. doubt many here even comprehend this,, The average Gibson past and current hold their own and appreciate no matter which you own unless abused or damaged by previous negligence ,, even their bottom line guitars are quality without the expensive components and hold their value! I really enjoy my Gibsons especially after learning how to set up these guitar!..practicing my les paul now and love it! If you bought it new or used from a dealer, call the shop you bought it from to help identify the issue.yes gl
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March 23, 2018 at 11:46 pm #95902
Nut issues are fairly common. Despite their high price, they don’t seem to have an interest in using high quality nuts. I am dealing with the same problem with a custom shop CS-336. G and B string, tuning issues primarily. It has the same type of headstock configuration as a Les Paul. It is otherwise an amazing guitar. So it is going to the luthier for a new nut.
If your Les Paul is newer than 2006, it should have had the PLEK fret leveling at the factory. That system was supposed to set the frets at consistent tolerances.
If you have a neck twist or frets moving, that may suggest a humidity issue. If you run your finger and thumb up and down the sides of the fingerboard, and the frets stick out, you have dry guitar. Fortunately, humidifying a dry guitar usually restores it to the way it was.
Sometimes the wood making up the neck is flawed. That’s rare, but I do own a Mexican tele that has a bad piece of maple in it’s neck.
These are just some ideas, and none of them may apply to your situation. But I would definitely have the guy show you what he is finding.
Keep us updated. We can all learn from your experience. -
March 24, 2018 at 11:49 am #95929
Different problem but still a Les Paul problem. I have a 2016 Studio and get a lot of buzz – I don’t know enough about the subject but maybe 60 Hz. It is very sensitive to lights, computers or anything else in the room. I can modulate the intensity just by holding it closer or farther from lights. I know this is somewhat normal but the buzz stops when I touch the strings or bridge or any other metal parts. Does this sound like a grounding problem to you? I’ve opened it up but I don’t know what I’m looking at. My PRS Custom 24 is dead quiet so I’m not thinking its just the pickups on the Gibson. Any comments or advice. I will probably take it in to a tech soon but was wondering if there is a simple solution.
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March 24, 2018 at 1:53 pm #95934
Uneven frets should cause a buzzing somewhere, especially if the higher frets are bigger than the lower ones. You can check this by holding the short side of a credit card over three frets and see if you can either rock the card, or if there is a gap visible. If this is an issue, it is definitely worth fixing.
I don’t know how fret leveling would fix a twist neck, but I suppose it’s possible. On this, definitely get the guy to show you.
Also, keep in mind that there is a difference between an imperfection and an audible imperfection. Unless it’s clear that there will be some benefit to either sound or playability, there is no point to doing the change.
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March 26, 2018 at 5:30 am #95995
Normally ski jump necks are more prone to happen on bolt on necks and can be a result of shimms being used, overtime the wood can bend into a curve due to the pressure of the shimm.
However it appears a lot of thinner guitar necks can have a kink at the 12th fret due to the pressure in this area and a resulting ski jump, this is from a talkbass forum but still relevant
https://www.talkbass.com/threads/getting-the-facts-about-ski-jumps.1111265/
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March 26, 2018 at 5:49 am #95996
**UPDATE**
I popped down to the Music Shop on Saturday. I’ve been to this music tech/luthier with any issues over my, almost, 3 years of playing guitar and he has always been very helpful. He took the Gibson out the case and said the guitar basically has slight twist. He said because of the nature of wood, most guitars have a twist of some sort (mostly very small that it can’t be noticed or felt). Humidity, time, drying process of the neck etc are all factors. If you balance the guitar on your foot, close one eye and look down my LP from the headstock down then you’ll see parts of the fretboard sticking slightly up. They are very small but they are there if you look.
I was told I would never have seen this when buying the guitar. I knew when I bought the guitar that the neck had a slight bow in the neck and the action was high so it wasn’t until the truss rod was adjusted and the action was taken down that the tech started to experience a slight fret buzz in the areas of the neck has “twists”. He said people will quite often panic when they hear the word twist because they fear the worst but in reality it can easily be fixed. My twist is very small and is actually on the higher thicker strings on the guitar where actually I’d probably fret least! The solution is if you file down the frets a tiny bit then it will stop the fret buzz.
Now, if the twist was bad then you would need to remove the frets and fretboard and sand down the neck to remove the buldges. If you were doing a complete re-fret then it may make sense to do this at that. Right now the twist is barely noticeable.
Hope this makes sense. It was definitely a learning curve for me as I didn’t know anything about it.
Jordan
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