A Theory About Checking Relief

[Bookkeeper's Son]

I've read a lot over the years about setup stuff, and neck relief seems to be one of the many things that are debated in forums. An idea popped into my head, and I'm wondering if anyone else has thought about it or read about it.

It occurred to me that maybe one reason a bit of relief is recommended is not for playability, but because of the most common method of checking relief - the "string method". When checking neck straightness with one of the strings, the only way to be absolutely certain that the neck isn't back-bowed is for there to be at least some gap at the middle frets.

Regardless of opinions about the need for relief, or about the amount of needed relief, I think my observation might be useful.

[deeaa*]

Relief is necessary because a string vibrates not only sideways but also away and towards the fretboard, and the oscillation center is in the middle of the free portion of the string. If completely flat, the action has to be unnecessarily high to keep, say low e from hitting frets on the middle of fretboard when plucked open. Some relief means more room to vibrate on the middle while the action stays low further up as the fretboard curves to meet the strings closer.

On best necks, there is more bass side relief than what occurs on treble side as on treble side strings vibrate much less widely.

The more heavy-handed you play, generally the more relief works better, while a gently picking shredder may like even totally straight a board and doesn't play open hard notes or mind a little fret noise.

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