Quick Trussrod Question

[Lt. Bob]

Interesting ...... in my entire 50 year career I'm not sure I've ever had to adjust a truss rod.

I suppose I run my actions so high it never matters.

I see in magazines like premier guitar and Guitar player they talk as if truss rods need constant adjustment ..... drives me crazy.

[WhiskeyJack]

my shitty old bass.

The name of your next country song.

[JD01]

Interesting ...... in my entire 50 year career I'm not sure I've ever had to adjust a truss rod.

I suppose I run my actions so high it never matters.

I see in magazines like premier guitar and Guitar player they talk as if truss rods need constant adjustment ..... drives me crazy.

Aside from on a cheapo chinese bass this is the first time I feel like I've actually needed to too. We have just had an unusually warm month for this part of the world though.

[JD01]

my shitty old bass.

The name of your next country song.

Was gonna for a progressive metal concept album... but now you've got me thinking.

[muttley]

Sorted. About a 1/4 turn of possible placebo adjustment done and it now feels much more like it should.

Most importantly the truss-rod moved with silky smooth action... nothing like I had some to expect from my shitty old bass. I'll be happy to adjust this further in future.

Yeh, a well constructed neck should mean that the rod adjustment moves it immediately and in small smooth degree's. I cant imagine Ben would pass off anything else.

[Tadpui]

Good thread, guys! And it's particularly interesting to me because my studio recently moved from a hot, dry upstairs room (usually 75F/20%) to a cool, humid basement room (70F/40%) and a couple of my guitars are still pretty unhappy about that move.

It seems that my Telecaster (American Deluxe) is the most sensitive to these environmental changes. It plays like total ass right now, when I had it in great shape in my last room. Same for my P-Bass (Mexi Standard). Is it the longer scale maple necks, maybe?

But my 50+ year old Jazzmaster and my Les Paul don't care. They haven't budged a bit that I can notice.

I finally, after all these years, got the proper tools to measure and adjust my guitars/basses, so I'm up for the challenge of getting them back in peak playing shape. I finally found a proper automotive spark plug gauge that has appropriate sizes for measuring neck relief, and a proper ruler with 1/64" increments on it. Oh, and a huge collection of metric and imperial hex wrenches. I'm sure that [mention]muttley[/mention] can make these measurements just by feel and eyeballs, but I have proven to be incapable of such finesse without the aid of actual tangible measurements:D


Maybe I'll actually devote the time and energy this weekend to setting all of them up again.

[JD01]

Sorted. About a 1/4 turn of possible placebo adjustment done and it now feels much more like it should.

Most importantly the truss-rod moved with silky smooth action... nothing like I had some to expect from my shitty old bass. I'll be happy to adjust this further in future.

Yeh, a well constructed neck should mean that the rod adjustment moves it immediately and in small smooth degree's. I cant imagine Ben would pass off anything else.

Yeah. Worked great. But then I suppose it bloody well should.

I shouldn't seem surprised but I've never experienced a truss rod that works that well before.

[JD01]

Good thread, guys! And it's particularly interesting to me because my studio recently moved from a hot, dry upstairs room (usually 75F/20%) to a cool, humid basement room (70F/40%) and a couple of my guitars are still pretty unhappy about that move.

It seems that my Telecaster (American Deluxe) is the most sensitive to these environmental changes. It plays like total ass right now, when I had it in great shape in my last room. Same for my P-Bass (Mexi Standard). Is it the longer scale maple necks, maybe?

But my 50+ year old Jazzmaster and my Les Paul don't care. They haven't budged a bit that I can notice.

I finally, after all these years, got the proper tools to measure and adjust my guitars/basses, so I'm up for the challenge of getting them back in peak playing shape. I finally found a proper automotive spark plug gauge that has appropriate sizes for measuring neck relief, and a proper ruler with 1/64" increments on it. Oh, and a huge collection of metric and imperial hex wrenches. I'm sure that @muttley can make these measurements just by feel and eyeballs, but I have proven to be incapable of such finesse without the aid of actual tangible measurements:D


Maybe I'll actually devote the time and energy this weekend to setting all of them up again.

Tad, this is the first time I've had to do setup on a properly quality guitar... But it was a breeze.

I think I'd developed a bit of a thing about truss rod adjustment cos I'd had a right arsw with it on shit guitars and never had to do it on my Ibanez in over 20 years. I could have played that guitar in Antarctica and it would have stayed in tune let alone need a truss rod adjust.