Gotoh side adjust for bass? Or...

[ihavenothingprofoundtosay]

. . . maybe a head adjust?  "Vintage Modern" for bass, maybe?  It would be kinda cool to have the ability to have a pickup in the "mudbucker" position (right up against the butt of the neck) on Fender style necks.  Not just because Billy Sheehan did it:

but because it's a great spot to put a pickup to catch some LOW frequencies. Is there some technical reason Gotoh side adjust can't be done on bass?

 

[Cagey]

I'm not sure why they don't do that. My understanding is that they make their own truss rods, so a call might get you an answer.

I built a baritone scale guitar for a member here not too long ago, and those necks don't have the side adjust either, even though they have the dual-action truss rod. I called them on it, because I couldn't get the relief I wanted and didn't realize it was a d/a truss due to the missing side adjust. Didn't want to loosen the rod until it unthreaded. But, I was assured that if I kept going, it would bend the way I wanted it to. Didn't think to ask why the omission.

On the plus side, necks with d/a truss rods are remarkably stable. Chances are very good that once you've got it adjusted to where you want it, it'll never move. Makes you wonder why they bother with the side adjuster in the first place. I've got about a dozen necks here made of as many different woods that I've never had to adjust, and this is Michigan, where temperature and humidity vary quite a bit.

 

[stubhead]

On the plus side, necks with d/a truss rods are remarkably stable. Chances are very good that once you've got it adjusted to where you want it, it'll never move. Makes you wonder why they bother with the side adjuster in the first place.

It's not strong enough to deal with bass string tension, so they ditch it. Same with sevens and baritones. On the double rod, a good deal more of the string tension is carried in the rod, so to terminate it in a construction of 10 little pieces of different metals, stress vectors heading off in every which way... I can't help but think they'd really like to backtrack from that gizmo, but can't. It keeps me ordering left-handed, Vintage or... USA Custom! :toothy12: Over on TDPRI, MIMF and others, that gizmo is the first reason people give for using MusiKraft, USACG etc. It's hard to see how they ever hit it in the first place. Everybody and their dog are now doing compound radius boards and stainless steel frets, but that side adjuster is all Warmoth's own. Training wheels on a Harley.... :icon_scratch: