question about fret "tangs"

[pluto]

I recently responded to a thread on the gearpage forum where somebody said he saw more than one Anderson with fret "tangs"-where the neck wood shrinks due to dry weather and therefore causing the frets ends to stick out of the necks. Here's the link:
http://63.151.115.106/board/showthread.php?threadid=27587 - He mentioned other guitars with presumably better wood quality did not have this problem. While I'm not doubting him, I'm just curious as to why dry weather would cause enough shrinkage to create this phenomenon. Also, I thought a lot of guitar builders are buying from the same wood source anyway which would therefore nullify any wood quality problem. Anybody know any info. about this? PS-Sorry if I'm ignorant of this subject-I'm from Hawaii-we don't have anything close to dry weather here.

[JoeB63]

It's not guitar-brand dependent. It's humidity dependent. Every guitar in the Guitar Center in the north Denver area has that problem. It's so dry there and they don't properly humidify. I have 3 TA's and none of them have protruding fret ends. The guy on th gear page who said that doesn't know what he's talking about.

[tom]

correct answer. we don't all buy wood from the same people, and many suppliers do supply wood that is not ready to use. we have our own kiln and redry any wood that is not ready to use. we build guitars with wood at the moisture content we think will allow it to live a long life where ever it goes. because wood expands and contratcts when it takes on or loses moisture, fret tangs , being made of metal are a problem. in southern california, we have pretty ideal conditions. wood here can have a moisture content of 6-7%, which is equilibrium here. wood will find equilibrium where ever it goes. if your humidity stays between 40 and 55%, you will see no changes. you probably won't have to adjust your neck either. like joe said, if you are in denver, or anywhere else that is cold enough to need forced air heating, you will see the relative humidity drop severely, and your wood will shrink. if you live in the humid south or east in the summer, your guitar will swell up. your frets may become subteranian. acoustic guitar's bodies change radically with humidity changes. taylor has lots of good info on humidity at their website. the ways an over dry condition will manifest itself in an electric guitar are frets sticking out, finish cracking at the corners of a tight fitting neck pocket, and finish following grain shrinkage. not of these are life threatening, but we all hate to see them. if you are going to do nothing to protect your guitar against the elements, then i would recommend trimming the frets during a dry condition so it won't be an ongoing problem, but don't expect your guitar to always be in great playing condition if you don't take care to protect it.
sorry for being long winded, but if you had any idea of what we go through to get guitars to their destination in good condition you would know why this kind of uneducated bashing is frustrating, it's also why i don't visit other forums.

[dpeterson]

I'll chime in... one thing i have noticed, necks with no finish tend to do this more, my san dimas charvel, my stingray 5 bass both do it, but it goes away when the humidity kicks up. None of my andersons have done it so far, so i'm sure finish helps seal the wood as well as fend off beer stains ;)

Dave

[pluto]

Thanks everyone for your responses. Being in Hawaii, the last thing I would see is a drying wood problem. That being said, I live in a climate where the humidity is usually always above 50%-I have never had a wood swelling problem on my guitars either and I don't have a climate controlled room. I do tend to get more corrosion on hard ware (especially nickel plated stuff), but that's about it. As for the poster on the gearpage forum, I don't know who he is although I've seen his posts before. I've got nothing against him except he made it seem as if the Anderson factory was making an inferior product compared to the others he mentioned (I believe it was Hamer and Melacon). Making uninformed comments about the quality of any product just irks me.

[Scott Peterson]

I know that member - his name is Ben - and he is a good guy.

What he is posting is probably true; but his resultant conclusion is off base.

He has no idea of how long those guitars were left unhumidified.

For example, I had a killer Taylor 810S I have owned since 1996. I have always kept it in the case, and took special care to keep the soundhole humidifier taken care of when needed. I live in Michigan and run a humidifier on my furnance, *plus* two free standing units in my two story home to keep the RH at 50% during winter. I run the AC in the summer to keep the humidity *down* at 50%. Always have.

When I decided to sell the Taylor about a month and a half ago, I took tons of pictures, cased and boxed it up to ship. No humidifier in the case. Long story short, the guitar did not sell for over a month and it sat in there - though the surrounding air was properly humidified outside the box - without a in case humidifier. The buyer had issues with surface cracking all over the neck binding, which a trusted (Jack Gretz!) luthier concluded was caused by fretboard shrinkage. Imagine my surprise on that one! Blew me away.

(Also to finish the story, I have offered - and will stand behind - to pay for any cost associated with repairs on the Taylor. Most likely once it is re-humidified and stable in its new environment, all will be well, but you never know...)

So in the end, it doesn't take long and any shifts in temp/humidity do indeed affect the natural properties of wood. Wood is an organic substance, it breathes and temp/humidity affect it greatly. Care must be taken, and even then you are still dealing with nature.