How to Adjust the Neck on an Acoustic Guitar

When you get your new guitar, you want to make sure it's set up correctly. Most new guitars need the neck adjusted because the neck will be either bowed up or down. You may also have to adjust the neck after restringing your guitar. If you have a good eye, you can do this easily. The steps below will guide you through adjusting the neck of an acoustic guitar.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Acoustic guitar
• Allen wrench

1. Begin by making sure your guitar is in tune. Wood on the neck of a guitar is flexible so the tightness of the strings can effect the straightness of the neck. Let the guitar set overnight before moving to Step 2.

2. Hold the guitar up at the head and look down the neck of the guitar. Examine whether the strings and neck are parallel with each other. Look down the top and bottom strings and compare them with the neck; you may see a bow in the shadow of the strings.

3. Adjust the neck by tightening the truss rod for an under bow and loosening for an over bow. The truss rod on an acoustic guitar is found underneath the neck where the neck and the sound hole meet.

4. Make a quarter turn at the truss rod then look down the neck again. Continue making quarter turns and sighting the neck until the neck is straight.

Tips & Warnings

• There should be a very slight bow downward on the neck of the guitar. You can check this by pressing down simultaneously on the first and last fret of the first, middle and last strings, independently. If there's enough room to fit a coin between the strings in the middle then go ahead and adjust the neck.
• Remember when adjusting the neck that, "right is tight" and "left is loose."
• Let the guitar set again overnight after adjusting the neck and check it the following day to see if there was any settling of the wood. If so, you must readjust.