R7 warble

[Parisianwalker]

Hi all,

My 2023 R7 has been a pain to set up, but I think I’ve got it pretty much spot on to where I need it, except for a bit of residual warble/flanging sound, coming out of a few frets around fret 17 and above, as well as on the high e string across the entire neck. Very little sustain on the mentioned notes as well.
In general, it also felt stiff and the sustain is more some kind of sitar-ish feedback than "true" note sustain and decay, if that makes sense.

I have taken the guitar to a luthier who lightly polished the high frets and the saddle slots, to little improvement.

Last night I gave it yet another light setup and the guitar finally came (almost) alive and it feels like much less stiff. The warble is all but gone, but still ever so slightly present.
Attaching soundbites here. Track 1 is about the offending notes in the dusty end area and track 2 is about the high e on the F, F# and A notes. F and particularly A are bad. The weird noise now sounds like a "ping" of some kind that I can't quite trace.

The strings are new (Elixir 10-46) and the action is around 2mm at the 12th fret, relief is around a business card's worth at the 9th fret when fretting the 1st and 22nd fret.
Do you have any suggestions?

 

[TM1]

I'd say your String is too low and that the pickup is too close to the string.

 

[charliechitlins]

Try setting your relief within the EFFECTIVE length of the truss rod, i.e. fret the first fret and the fret where the neck joins the body.

 

[Parisianwalker]

Try setting your relief within the EFFECTIVE length of the truss rod, i.e. fret the first fret and the fret where the neck joins the body.

Do you mean that I should measure my action by pressing on the 1st and 17th frets and make sure it’s right?

 

[latestarter]

I’m hoping this isn’t the case, but Gibson occasionally send out guitars with poorly seated frets. I have had to rework new Rxs to deal with the complaints you raised.

 

[latestarter]

Do you mean that I should measure my action by pressing on the 1st and 17th frets and make sure it’s right?

This suggestion is correct - 1 to 17 and measure at halfway.

 

[garywright]

the relief not the action

 

[charliechitlins]

Do you mean that I should measure my action by pressing on the 1st and 17th frets and make sure it’s right?

Not your action, but your neck relief.
Look at how the 17th to the 22nd fret is secured to the body and tell me if you think the truss rod could have any effect on it.
The effective length of the TR is frets 1-17.

 

[Parisianwalker]

Not your action, but your neck relief.
Look at how the 17th to the 22nd fret is secured to the body and tell me if you think the truss rod could have any effect on it.
The effective length of the TR is frets 1-17.

Apologies, I meant relief. I’m aware of the “frying pan” like geometry of the LP neck which is due to the neck joining the body at the 17th fret.

 

[Parisianwalker]

I’m hoping this isn’t the case, but Gibson occasionally send out guitars with poorly seated frets. I have had to rework new Rxs to deal with the complaints you raised.

Hopefully that’s not the case, the guitar has been checked by another luthier also who had a look at the frets with a fret rocker and confirmed the guitar is sound.

 

[Parisianwalker]

So I’ve measured the relief on the 17th fret instead of on the 22nd. There is a slight difference in height by measuring that way.
I’ve loosened the truss rod by around 1/8 of a turn and the guitar now plays like butter. It used to be stiff and very hard to play, but now I get the familiar Gibson feel.

This is my first LP, and I’m primarily an SG player. I never had this issue with the SG because the entire neck protrudes outside of the body on it, whereas on the LP you get the cantilever effect of the 17th-22nd feet portion.

Thanks all!