I’m having some trouble while setting up my new Music Man Majesty. It seems that Music Man applies some kind of pre-tension to the mahogany neck so it backbows, to counterweight the .010 strings that come stock with the guitar. Looks like a bad design decision to me, I wonder: isn’t it what the truss rod is for?
Since the guitar is hard-set to .010 gauge, my custom .008 is causing a strong backbow, with the 5th and 6th frets buzzing like crazy in all 6 strings, even with the truss rod completely loose. But I’m really enjoying the neck profile and the overall feeling of the Majesty, so I’m trying to work it out.
My current gauge is .008 .009 .011 .021 .030 .038, which I use in the Ibanez JPM and the Suhr Modern Satin without any problems. The Suhr setup is particularly perfect.
So yesterday I rescued the two heavier strings from the .009 D’Addario set I had thrown into the trash bin, and now I’m trying .008 .009 .011 .021 .032 .042 on the Majesty, with the hopes that the heavier strings from the .009 set will pull the neck forward and alleviate the backbow.
Plot twist: A couple weeks later, measuring the neck relief, I found out that the neck wasn’t backbowed, but very close to straight. The real problem was, probably, a raised 7th fret, which made the 6th fret unusable. Being an expensive instrument with stainless steel frets, I found it to be unnaceptable.
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