The most terrifying trust rod adjustment, EVA!

[amigarobbo]

OMG, He's not going to do that under string tension is he??

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKtlsps4SqY[/youtube]

He did 

https://youtu.be/qKtlsps4SqY?t=255

:tard:

Please tell me that's not how you're supposed to it, and I've been wasting valuable time detuning the strings before I do it?

 

[mayfly]

I sometimes cheat and push down on the headstock to relieve the string tension while turning the rod.  I used to have a rickenbacker 12 that would need a neck tweak all the time (with two truss rods no less!).  That's how I did it.

 

[mayfly]

Here's how Dan does it:

[youtube]ZtKzL3n0fgc[/youtube]

Hey!  is the you tube embedding busted? Update - Never mind; my flash was just out of date.

 

[amigarobbo]

I sometimes cheat and push down on the headstock to relieve the string tension while turning the rod.  I used to have a rickenbacker 12 that would need a neck tweak all the time (with two truss rods no less!).  That's how I did it.

That's standard Rickenbacker procedure, apparently.

http://joeysbassnotes.com/Rick_maint.htm#tra



Did I mention that first Video was released by Fender?

 

[thearmofbarlow]

Absolutely nothing terrifying here. The truss rod is a big stick that makes a piece of wood bend. There's nothing special, there's nothing magic, and I seriously want to jam a squirrel in everyone I see treat the thing as if they're the bomb squad and it's a 6-pack of nitroglycerin.

Too much BS shouted by too many people that don't know what the hell they're doing, that have never worked on guitars, but their uncle knew this guy once that used a truss rod and now he's addicted to crack and his guitar neck broke so you shouldn't ever touch the truss rod unless you want your dog to die.

:confused4:

 

[amigarobbo]

It's not so much the truss rod itself, more the way he'll damage the neck pocket by twisting it out like he does at the 5 minute mark. I wouldn't move a neck like that within a neck pocket no strings or screws in.

Oh, and damaging the neck screws/enlarging the screw holes.

 

[line6man]

Absolutely nothing terrifying here. The truss rod is a big stick that makes a piece of wood bend. There's nothing special, there's nothing magic, and I seriously want to jam a squirrel in everyone I see treat the thing as if they're the bomb squad and it's a 6-pack of nitroglycerin.

Too much BS shouted by too many people that don't know what the hell they're doing, that have never worked on guitars, but their uncle knew this guy once that used a truss rod and now he's addicted to crack and his guitar neck broke so you shouldn't ever touch the truss rod unless you want your dog to die.

:confused4:

Did you watch the video? It's not the truss rod adjustment that has us on edge. It's the way that he's removing the neck.

 

[Cagey]

Going by what I've found taking apart many, many Fender guitars over the years, nothing about how they handle them would surprise me.

 

[thearmofbarlow]

Did you watch the video? It's not the truss rod adjustment that has us on edge. It's the way that he's removing the neck.

Even less of note there. At absolute worst you might bend a screw maybe. But you won't.

It's not so much the truss rod itself, more the way he'll damage the neck pocket by twisting it out like he does at the 5 minute mark. I wouldn't move a neck like that within a neck pocket no strings or screws in.

Oh, and damaging the neck screws/enlarging the screw holes.

No, he won't. You wouldn't move a neck like that because you apparently haven't worked on enough of them to know how hard it actually is to damage a neck pocket. Here's a hint: Chisels are your best bet.

Enlarging the screw holes? They're screw HOLES. It doesn't matter what size they are but, again, you're not going to enlarge the damn screw holes doing this.

I swear absolutely nobody actually TRIES things they just believe the bullshit spewed by whatever the know-nothing at the store told them because obviously he should know because he works there. Don't even believe me, even though I'm right, just do it yourself. This is the last place I'd have expected this kind of silliness but then again... guitar-related bullshit is all pervasive I guess. Sad.

 

[stratamania]

I've adjusted a neck like that, I mean it looks and might sound odd but how else in a practical manner can you do a traditional heel adjust.

 

[Cagey]

There's an easy way to avoid having to deal with poor designs that force you to do things that offend your sensibilities: use modern technologies. It is as Barney Stinson always says...

Warmoth's "Modern" design neck allows you to adjust truss rods without removing or loosening the neck at all - you simply use the side adjust. Hell, even the quasi-modern designs from the usual suspects at least let you crank on the thing from the headstock. Why Leo ever put the adjustment on the heel where you couldn't get at it is a mystery for the ages. At least he eventually moved it to the headstock.

 

[stratamania]

Indeed, a heel adjust is bit of a silly design. The side adjust or headstock truss rod adjust and the spoke wheel at the heel all are much better. I particularly like the spoke wheel method.

Still if you have a heel adjust its a thing you have to deal with. The two videos of Chris Fleming from Fender and Dan Erlewine are different things to my mind. One is dealing with a newish instrument and how to adjust in a practical way and the other is more restorative work on an old instrument needing a bit more attention.

 

[aarontunes]

Indeed, a heel adjust is bit of a silly design. The side adjust or headstock truss rod adjust and the spoke wheel at the heel all are much better. I particularly like the spoke wheel method.

Still if you have a heel adjust its a thing you have to deal with. The two videos of Chris Fleming from Fender and Dan Erlewine are different things to my mind. One is dealing with a newish instrument and how to adjust in a practical way and the other is more restorative work on an old instrument needing a bit more attention.

Spoke wheel adjust is my favorite design, bar none, now and forever. Everyone is moving towards it...including Fender with their Elite series. My guess is that if it's well-received, Fender will move it to their core line. Heck...they already are using it on the Charvel and EVH stuff. The list of other brands that use it is growing all the time: Ernie Ball, Sadowsky, ESP, etc, etc.


It's a no-brainer, IMO: easy access, and no special tools required. You could probably adjust it with a paper clip if you had to.


Guitarists have a reputation for being Luddites, and I'll admit I am in some respects too. However, a spoke-wheel truss rod is one of those little tech advances that just seems so obvious, once you have seen and tried one.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I agree.

Even Jackson is using it on some tilt back designs, ala Misha Mansoor's siggy.
This is the perfect setup in my opinion.  You get the break angle over the nut straight to the tuner with no trees or bars, and you get a minimalist approach to minor adjustments.

 

[stratamania]

Perhaps we might see such a spoke wheel  from Warmoth, which would be a cool option.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Perhaps we might see such a spoke wheel  from Warmoth, which would be a cool option.

The demand would have to warrant it, but yes, I'd love to see this become "standard".

 

[stratamania]

Perhaps we might see such a spoke wheel  from Warmoth, which would be a cool option.

The demand would have to warrant it, but yes, I'd love to see this become "standard".

Indeed, but I think it stands a good chance and isn't really out there as a design.

 

[thearmofbarlow]

Why Leo ever put the adjustment on the heel where you couldn't get at it is a mystery for the ages. At least he eventually moved it to the headstock.

Because Leo Fender didn't know a damn thing about guitars. If he did he wouldn't have created the godawful monstrosity known as the Jazzmaster/Jaguar style trem system. He was an inventor and a tinkerer, not an instrument designer. Feedback from players is what helped shape the Tele and Strat more than anything else, and many of those guys were playing acoustics... which at the time had the adjustment largely at the heel end under the soundboard.

There's also the possibility that extant Gibson patents would have covered the configuration with adjustment at the headstock. Easier to flip it around and go "Nuh-uh, we're different!" than to deal with potential legal issues.

And let's not forget that Fenders were designed from the ground up to be built and kicked out the door as quickly and cheaply as possible. Gibson and Gretsch made the Rolls Royces. Fender made the Model T.

Spoke wheel adjust is my favorite design, bar none, now and forever. Everyone is moving towards it...including Fender with their Elite series. My guess is that if it's well-received, Fender will move it to their core line. Heck...they already are using it on the Charvel and EVH stuff. The list of other brands that use it is growing all the time: Ernie Ball, Sadowsky, ESP, etc, etc.


It's a no-brainer, IMO: easy access, and no special tools required. You could probably adjust it with a paper clip if you had to.


Guitarists have a reputation for being Luddites, and I'll admit I am in some respects too. However, a spoke-wheel truss rod is one of those little tech advances that just seems so obvious, once you have seen and tried one.

I hated it when I first got my Sterling bass (first instrument I've owned with one) but it quickly grew on me. I despise truss rod covers, don't like heel adjustment, and am not the biggest fan of the compressed chewing gum most hexhead truss rod adjustment nuts are made of. It's rather obvious this is the best system yet devised.

Does anyone know when they were first introduced and by whom? The earliest thing I remember seeing them on has always been EBMM basses. Were they another Fender invention or was it after he left? Or was it someone else entirely?

 

[Cagey]

Because Leo Fender didn't know a damn thing about guitars. If he did he wouldn't have created the godawful monstrosity known as the Jazzmaster/Jaguar style trem system.

Ah, a kindred spirit! Hehe! I've not called them a "monstrosity", though. Aesthetically, they don't look bad. For fugly, look at some of Gibson's early attempts at vibrato mechanisms. But, I've always referred to Fender's Jazzmaster/Jaguar misfires as a "cruel joke" because when you use one or try to adjust one or live with one or take one apart, all you can say is "Are you kidding me? Surely you're joking!"

It's not like there were no such things as mechanical engineers back in the '50s/'60s, so wtf? A week's wages to an outside contractor would have been all he needed to come up with something at least semi-practical.

 

[thearmofbarlow]

Ah, a kindred spirit! Hehe! I've not called them a "monstrosity", though. Aesthetically, they don't look bad. For fugly, look at some of Gibson's early attempts at vibrato mechanisms. But, I've always referred to Fender's Jazzmaster/Jaguar misfires as a "cruel joke" because when you use one or try to adjust one or live with one or take one apart, all you can say is "Are you kidding me? Surely you're joking!"

It's not like there were no such things as mechanical engineers back in the '50s/'60s, so wtf? A week's wages to an outside contractor would have been all he needed to come up with something at least semi-practical.

HA! No, aesthetically I flippin' LOVE the things. They just look elegant, like a non-malignant Bigsby. It's the actual operation that makes no sense... except fiscally. Take a cheaply stamped baseplate, drill a couple of holes, shove a cast or stamped saddle in there, plop it into a couple of holes. Costs a few bucks. Contrast that with how much a roller bridge would cost. Design and development wouldn't be very expensive. It would be the actual production where the costs would pile up. To get the kind of tolerances needed you're looking at machining a number of parts which means either huge recurring expense for labor or a massive up-front cost for building custom machinery to do those operations in an automated manner (well before the days of CNC).

Or we could just go with the stampy-stampy-wobbly one with the terrible saddles and knock about $100 off the price. :headbang: