help! my neck sucks!

im very much into tapping nowadays and im finding it hard to execute those vai tap solos cuz the action on my neck gets higher as i approach the higher frets. i thougt maybe a truss rod adjustment would do it but i read a manual saying that i should measure the bow first by fretting the string at the 1st and 12th fret (using it as a guide). i did it, the height seemed ok (when i did the fret thing measurement) but its still high (and no, its not me cuz i've played acoustics w/ lower action). any remedies? btw, my guitar is a strat squier.

Try get a knife in kitchen, then just cut of some wood from the neck and when you feel comfortably, just stop. i did that before i needed a thiner neck, and now i have same guitar and it works perfect! I can play Many solos better now couse my thinner neck! GOOD LUCK!

You would need good luck for that. Or some incredible skill at woodworking.

Well, I suppose it's a lot safer since it's a squire. If you try that with something like a vintage neck-through korina explorer you should be committed to somewhere padded. Or shot.

From my experience squire guitars can be tweaked to have pretty low action. What string gauge are you using?

d addario extra light gauge. and im definitely not cutting anything cuz its my only guitar. how do we tweak pls? :)

You set the strings lower and adjust the neck if need be. It's not hard but it is trying to explain. I'm nowhere near a technical writer.

now that ive thought about it, doesnt cutting from the neck incerase the action. i was thinking about putting a piece of wood or something between the neck and the body (where the neck is bolted) is this a good idea?

The Squier might have a micro tilt adjustment under the neckplate that you can adjust and bring the neck closer to the strings. That and a truss rod adjustment should do the trick.

String action increases as one goes up the upper frets- that’s perfectly normal. If you are still uncomfortable with your current action, you should mess around with the action & settle only with one which very much helps your playing.

In a guitar clinic, Paul Gilbert once showed us his guitar which has a very sick, super low action. It’s buzzing all the time but that buzz didn’t manifest in his amp. So that was my philosophy ever since…

hmm, interesting... how was that possible?

There’s a misconception that every fret neck buzz manifests through the amp- bogus. If you are experiencing a neck buzz, crank up your amp & listen well. If you hear buzzing, then there’s a cause for concern, most of the time there won’t be any. Your pickups job is to pick up the vibrations at the picking end & not the fretting end, that’s why fret buzz isn’t amplified.Amplified buzzing suspects are (most of the time), cable (lead to some of us…)/ speaker (cracked cones)/ pedals…

Paul Gilbert’s philosphy is this: go as low as you can, even if it buzzes, as long as it doesn’t get amplified, if low action helps you play better. Otherwise, stick to the default action.