[wannalearn01]

So the bottom string on my guitar went dead from like the 15th fret down, then it started deadening the whole string, going up the neck, so I put in a couple shims to raise up the strings from the fretboard.

I checked but I can not find the tension rod in there, no nuts anywhere on the inside....which is likely it was a cheaper guitar...Epiphone.

My question is what are some possible causes?

I live in the midwest so there has been a change in overall temp, but also has some different humidity too. I don't have a case I just leave it on a stand.

What would you all sugest I do at this point?

Troy

[billy16]

i don't think temperature would cause a drastic thing like that. if it was a cheaper guitar though, maybe it would be more suceptible to temperature.

humidity i'm not sure how that would effect it, but i still don't think it would do that.

did it have any preexisting cracks in the neck? if so, moisture could've seeped in and cause more warp.

where was it made? guitars made in china or elsewhere other than the U.S. have weaker glues and weaker materials in them.

it must be cheap, even my wal-mart guitar has a truss rod in it.

i'd go get it looked at by someone, because this is someting you more than likely can't fix yourself.

[wannalearn01]

The reason I asked about temp. is b.c it makes sense it could change the shape. And they make humidifiers for a reason(could be a money trap but I don't know either).

See the thing is it is a Epiphone that retails at about 300-350 bucks...maybe I just couldn't feel it, but I loosened all my strings and reached in but could feel anything...unless it was covered by something...and I have to take all the strings off to get to it, but I had my whole hand in there.

See it has been a year since I got it, and about 6 months ago I took out some shims to lower the action. I fixed it by cutting up some Zig Zag packages and raising the action just a little...

The only other thing I can think of is I used to leave the capo on the guitar for months...which could ahve tweaked something...so I have been trying not to do that and so far it has worked.

I need to get a new acoustic anyways, and wanted a new one ASAP, but I would like to have this one as a good back-up, not junk.

Thanks for your input, if anyone else has had any issues please let me know.

T^roy

[billy16]

i've had experience with temperature effect on a guitar, but mine was cheap.

i thought since maybe you had an epi, it would be of better quality.

my old acoustic had a crack in the neck, almost down the middle. it wasn't much. well, my room goes from about 75 to 35 fairenheit each day. well, as you know, cold causes thing to contract and heat to expand.

eventually, it split quite badly. i was able to fix it with glue.

what you could do to perhaps stop more damage is put it in a room with the least temperature variation. i don't know too much about guitars, but maybe yours has something different to adjust the neck.

the capo might have thrown something a bit off. i know that puts some strain on the neck.

[dadfad]

Most Epi acoustics have the nut under a coverplate on the headstock (like Gibsons). Temperature and humidity can effect your guitar. Usually in a minor way, but if it was close anyway it could be enough to make the difference. If you have forced-air heating in your house (as most people do) the air is probably pretty dry. A slight contraction of the dry wood possibly could have caused it (usually a guitar that gets too warm might have a glue/joint problem which causes the opposite to happen. The neck will begin to bow or the top will "belly" in the bridge area. Or the bridge itself will start to lift slightly. So I'm going with dry-humidity. If you can't find the rod-nut (or even if you can) try putting your guitar in a case for a day. If you don't have a guitar-humidifier (a waste of money, I use a plastic snuff-can with a piece of moist sponge in it with holes punched in the top) get a kitchen sponge nice and damp. Put it in the case with your guitar. Put it in like a plastic baggie that isn't sealed and is loose enough so the moisture can circulate around the air inside, but not get your case or guitar wet or anything. See if that makes a difference in a day or so. It might get over-humidified even, but that's no big deal. You're just looking to see if that's the problem right now. It's easy enough to let it dry out a bit.

Over-humidified guitars get sluggish and sound a little deader. An over-dried one can shrink a little, which can eventually contribute to glue-failure. Sometimes you can actually feel the fret ends just a liiiiittttle bit sticking out of the side of the neck more than they did before (did you notice that by any chance?). It's a struggle to keep it all balanced just right. Myself, I'd rather err on the side of dryness, because the guitar sounds better than too humid. Some guys would disagree because humidity is good for the wood (if not the tone). I want my guitars to sound good more than I want them to stay perfectly preserved for a zillion years, but that's just me. Anyway, I hope this has helped a little and given you a couple of things to look at to start with.

[wannalearn01]

Most Epi acoustics have the nut under a coverplate on the headstock (like Gibsons). Temperature and humidity can effect your guitar. Usually in a minor way, but if it was close anyway it could be enough to make the difference. If you have forced-air heating in your house (as most people do) the air is probably pretty dry. A slight contraction of the dry wood possibly could have caused it (usually a guitar that gets too warm might have a glue/joint problem which causes the opposite to happen. The neck will begin to bow or the top will "belly" in the bridge area. Or the bridge itself will start to lift slightly. So I'm going with dry-humidity. If you can't find the rod-nut (or even if you can) try putting your guitar in a case for a day. If you don't have a guitar-humidifier (a waste of money, I use a plastic snuff-can with a piece of moist sponge in it with holes punched in the top) get a kitchen sponge nice and damp. Put it in the case with your guitar. Put it in like a plastic baggie that isn't sealed and is loose enough so the moisture can circulate around the air inside, but not get your case or guitar wet or anything. See if that makes a difference in a day or so. It might get over-humidified even, but that's no big deal. You're just looking to see if that's the problem right now. It's easy enough to let it dry out a bit.

Over-humidified guitars get sluggish and sound a little deader. An over-dried one can shrink a little, which can eventually contribute to glue-failure. Sometimes you can actually feel the fret ends just a liiiiittttle bit sticking out of the side of the neck more than they did before (did you notice that by any chance?). It's a struggle to keep it all balanced just right. Myself, I'd rather err on the side of dryness, because the guitar sounds better than too humid. Some guys would disagree because humidity is good for the wood (if not the tone). I want my guitars to sound good more than I want them to stay perfectly preserved for a zillion years, but that's just me. Anyway, I hope this has helped a little and given you a couple of things to look at to start with.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yea I am completely foolish, mine has the nut at the top under the cover like you said, I was just short sighted at the time. I was thinking it was lack of humidity too, so I will try what you said and see if that changes anything. It might have been too humidified before and dried out and went the other way b.c the notes sounded better now then ever...I will try the rehumidify procedure for sure, see if that changes anything. If that doesn't change, then I will try adjusting the trust rod 1/4 turn at a time...but my temp. fix has been holding up, so I can't complain.

Thank yuou all for your helpl it is greatly appreciated, esp dadfad's extra information that I know will come in useful down the road.

Troy

[wannalearn01]

Dadfad,

I don't have a case, but I did some laundry that was still wet and needed to be hung, but I noticed right down by the 12th-15th I could slightly feel the frets sticking out of the side, so I put the guitar in a closet with those wet clothes last night and i think it fixed it, I felt this morning and it was a lot better!

Thanks for your help,

T^roy

Yea, laundry and guitars, who would ahve thoght I cna do both now