Looking for a guitar that can handle the change of seasons better.

R

Randall Smith

Member
Hello all,

I have an older fender telecaster with a lightly flamed maple neck.

I find that the guitar needs to be re set up nearly every season here in Colorado.

Is there a guitar out there that does a better job of keeping their setup longer?

I have heard that roasted maple is not as affected by temperature fluctuations, but I don’t have any experience? If you have a roasted maple neck, what has your experience been?

The Yamaha revstar guitars have a carbon reinforced neck. Would that help with setup/intonation issues?

Is there any other guitar that I could look at that can handle the Colorado weather better?

Thank you in advance,
Randall
 
my charvel has a roasted neck and i have not had to make any adjustments but in california the weather changes haven't been as drastic as the ones you experience in colorado
 
I have one guitar with a double action truss rod that seems to be more stable than the others. I live in a dry area so I keep a humidified room for my guitars. They still move though when I bring them down to where I play. It’s just part of the deal unless you can find a guitar not made from wood.
 
The problem is not the wood but the size of the neck.

My main guitar is a warmoth tele with a maple neck and a fatback profile (huge) and it barely moves
 
The most stable guitar I have ever had is G&L strat. Good Lord that thing didn't care about me taking it from humidified home environment through -20C outside to a night club and back, never losing a cent. I played whole gigs without giving a sheit about tuners, never needed them. It started to lose the tuning stability only as strings aged.
No idea about the quality of modern G&Ls but I really hope it's the same still.
 
I'm also in Colorado, at almost 7000ft.

I've had good luck with my Suhr Electrics and Taylor acoustics holding their setups.

The humidity varies between 40-60% in my home studio. If below 50%, I put the acoustics in their cases with humidifier packs for a few days.
 
I have a custom tele style guitar with a roasted maple neck. I have only adjusted the truss-rod once in 4 years.
I live in Norway where the humidity changes a lot from summer to winter. In the summer i have somewhere around 60% humidity inside, while during the winter it often goes below 20%.

I'm not sure if it's because of the roasted maple or because of some other cause though, but it seems more stable than my other guitars.

All my guitars have quite slim necks.
 
My Vigier is pretty stable.

They think they're so stable they don't even have an adjustable truss rod. Change string gauges, climates, doesn't care. That's part of the spiel.

I haven't had mine long enough to really verify that, but it's a quality guitar, with checking out if you can find one local to you. (I bought mine here.)
 
Randall Smith said:
Hello all,

I have an older fender telecaster with a lightly flamed maple neck.

I find that the guitar needs to be re set up nearly every season here in Colorado.

Is there a guitar out there that does a better job of keeping their setup longer?

I have heard that roasted maple is not as affected by temperature fluctuations, but I don’t have any experience? If you have a roasted maple neck, what has your experience been?

The Yamaha revstar guitars have a carbon reinforced neck. Would that help with setup/intonation issues?

Is there any other guitar that I could look at that can handle the Colorado weather better?

Thank you in advance,
Randall
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I live in Jersey where we have seasons. Right now it’s cold. The two guitars I have that almost never need truss rod adjustments are my Peavey Wolfgang with carbon fiber rods in the neck and my Suhr Custom Standard with a roasted maple neck.
The Suhr is my #1 gigging guitar. It’s usually in a mono gig bag during the week. It’s usually in tune from the week before when I setup for a gig.
 
The Yamaha Revstars (standard & professional) have the carbon rods in the neck. It's also a chunky neck, unless you reshape it like I did.
It's pretty stable I'd say. For instance, no impact on the other strings when going from standard to Drop D tuning. (I guess many guitars can handle this, but I do have some where I check the other strings when I go to Drop D)
 
As a rule, seasonal changes can be handled with a tweak of the truss rod. No need for a full setup.

As long as your guitar is made of wood, there will be seasonal variations, especially if you live in a climate that has clearly-defined seasons. The only real way out of that is to build the guitar (or at least the neck) with synthetic materials. Beyond that, every guitarist owes it to themselves to get comfortable with tweaking the truss rod. A couple of minutes two to four times a year is small investment.
 
I would look for an older carbon fibre guitar, like a Steinberger GL, a Modulus Graphite, maybe a Parker Fly Deluxe, Classic, or Supreme if you really find a wooden instrument moving a lot. I would think that a roasted neck would also resist seasonal changes pretty well, tho probably not as well as a carbon/graphite neck.

That said, I lived above Boulder. CO for 12+ years with at least 6 electrics and 4 acoustics, all wood. Perhaps I was lucky, or maybe oblivious, but I don't recall EVER removing a trussrod cover, let alone changing the setup on any of them, altho I specifically look for exceptionally stable guitars in terms of tuning and intonation, and most other characteristics (pickups, cosmetics, etc.) are negotiable, so I have several guitars which have not required a trussrod adjustment in 30-55 years. Obviously, YMMV.
 
Bobbyoso said:
I would look for an older carbon fibre guitar, like a Steinberger GL, a Modulus Graphite, maybe a Parker Fly Deluxe, Classic, or Supreme if you really find a wooden instrument moving a lot. I would think that a roasted neck would also resist seasonal changes pretty well, tho probably not as well as a carbon/graphite neck.

That said, I lived above Boulder. CO for 12+ years with at least 6 electrics and 4 acoustics, all wood. Perhaps I was lucky, or maybe oblivious, but I don't recall EVER removing a trussrod cover, let alone changing the setup on any of them, altho I specifically look for exceptionally stable guitars in terms of tuning and intonation, and most other characteristics (pickups, cosmetics, etc.) are negotiable, so I have several guitars which have not required a trussrod adjustment in 30-55 years. Obviously, YMMV.
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How do you shop for that kind of stability? Isn't it hard to tell from a couple hours in a store?
 
Randall Smith said:
I have heard that roasted maple is not as affected by temperature fluctuations, but I don’t have any experience? If you have a roasted maple neck, what has your experience been?
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I have 4 guitars with roasted maple necks that I’ve owned anywhere from 3-8 years. Other than the original setup, I haven’t had to touch them since.

My un roasted guitars, have all needed multiple adjustments.
 
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