When should truss rod adjustments be made? I figured it would be after the guitar is strung up so you could see how the tension affects the neck, but I remembered just now that some necks require the neck to be removed to make any adjustments. The bolt for truss rod adjustment is very loose (can be turned by very little effort from 1 finger) so i'm guessing it's unsafe to string up the guitar without some kind of adjustment - can anyone verify this?
Truss rod adjustments
- Thread starter seagulc
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Warmoth recomends a loose truss rod when the neck is not on the guitar, If you have a top or side adjust, adjust after the srtings are on and tuned to pitch.. if it's a bottom adj. thats different. I just did a total set up including shimming the neck today.. what a pain, but now the action is just as I wish
Funky Phil
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A good start is to adjust the neck to be exactly straight (use a straight edge).
This works (in most cases) with 9's or 10's.
Perhaps a bit a back bow if you are using 11's...
This works (in most cases) with 9's or 10's.
Perhaps a bit a back bow if you are using 11's...
Funky Phil
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Funky Phil said:
This is before you screw the neck to the body...
You are aiming for a small amount of relief when strung up.
This method is most useful for vintage type necks, with the adjuster at the body end of the neck.
Also for Warmoth Pro necks...the end adjuster often needs to be quite tight!
Also keep in mind, It may take a day or two to fully settle, or mostly settle, so plan on a few more minute adjustments. And for what it's worth, not everyone sets up their neck with a slight bit of relief, Many, including me like them straight,
But that's a personal preferance
But that's a personal preferance
reluctant-builder
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Hey, guys. I know this thread's been long dead, but the subject is precisely what I'd have chosen, so I'm resurrecting it.
I ordered a Vintage Modern neck for my Jazzy on Jalane's recommendation, since we're both left-handed; he told me that, due to our shared trait, the side-adjusting truss-rod nut would be hidden behind the neck pocket wall of the upper cutaway.
However, I was thinking of ordering an Arrow neck with my Musiclander build (made sense to me...) and they only offer that headstock on a Warmoth Pro neck. Now, I'm not poo-pooing the quality of the necks; I'd first wanted to get one for my Jazzy because I hate adjusting the truss rod, but I'm worried about getting one due to the apparent difficulty of making an adjustment. It has only adjusting nuts in the heel side and heel proper, right? Blargh.
On another note, my tech gave my bass and my Swede waaaay too much neck relief a while back. Both played fine, I was able to intone them, but I'm worried now about neck warpage. I've adjusted the rods, tightened them to try and straighten out the necks, turning a bit, leaving them, coming back, and I'm noticing they still have a back bow.
The action on the bass is big enough to drive a truck under ... the action on the Swede, unfretted, is close to 2/16 ... 1/16 when fretted. The Swede, which has 12s on it, intones almost perfectly even down in C-standard. I gave uniformly slackened the strings to relieve some of the tension while the rod adjustment sets in. Harrowing. Any insight would be appreciated.
Thanks.
I ordered a Vintage Modern neck for my Jazzy on Jalane's recommendation, since we're both left-handed; he told me that, due to our shared trait, the side-adjusting truss-rod nut would be hidden behind the neck pocket wall of the upper cutaway.
However, I was thinking of ordering an Arrow neck with my Musiclander build (made sense to me...) and they only offer that headstock on a Warmoth Pro neck. Now, I'm not poo-pooing the quality of the necks; I'd first wanted to get one for my Jazzy because I hate adjusting the truss rod, but I'm worried about getting one due to the apparent difficulty of making an adjustment. It has only adjusting nuts in the heel side and heel proper, right? Blargh.
On another note, my tech gave my bass and my Swede waaaay too much neck relief a while back. Both played fine, I was able to intone them, but I'm worried now about neck warpage. I've adjusted the rods, tightened them to try and straighten out the necks, turning a bit, leaving them, coming back, and I'm noticing they still have a back bow.
The action on the bass is big enough to drive a truck under ... the action on the Swede, unfretted, is close to 2/16 ... 1/16 when fretted. The Swede, which has 12s on it, intones almost perfectly even down in C-standard. I gave uniformly slackened the strings to relieve some of the tension while the rod adjustment sets in. Harrowing. Any insight would be appreciated.
Thanks.
Corey P.
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I'm confused - if your neck has a back bow under string tension you would want to loosen the truss rod, not tighten it:
The "up-bow" is what's referred to as relief - if your neck is literally back-bowed and you have high action, your string saddle/bridge height would most likely be another issue beyond the neck not being straight.
The "up-bow" is what's referred to as relief - if your neck is literally back-bowed and you have high action, your string saddle/bridge height would most likely be another issue beyond the neck not being straight.
Cagey
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reluctant-builder said:
You do realize that tightening the truss rod will take you progressively from relieved, to straight, to back-bowed, right? You said you keep tightening it, but you still have too much back bow. That's kinda like a carpenter saying "I cut the damn thing 3 times, and it's still too short!" <grin>
To be clear, a "relieved" neck is lower at the central frets relative to the high and low frets, a straight neck has all the frets level, and bowed neck has the central frets higher than the high and low frets.
You never want a bowed neck. Straight is as severe as you'd want it, and somewhat relieved usually works out best.
It's difficult to go from a relieved neck toward straight without removing all string tension, as you're fighting the neck's tendency to move forward as well as the string tension pulling it forward. You can't get rid of the neck's tendencies, but you do have control over the strings.
You may want to either get a known straight edge or use a string as a straight edge by fretting it at the 1st and 15th fret and measure how much relief you have before you try adjusting it out. Could be your bridge saddles are just too high, creating too high an action. Trying to correct that with the truss rod will most likely be an exercise in futility. The neck doesn't move that much.
reluctant-builder
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OK. Utter confusion, obviously. Glad I posted. Idiocy is best outed, posthaste. My terminology was confused. What I was referring to as "back-bow" was the back of the neck bowing toward the floor with the fretboard concave below the strings, exhibiting space between the string and 12th fret when capo-ed at one and depressed at 22. That said, since it's too much "up-bow" (smacks face), I am right to be tightening the rod, correct?
Thankfully, I haven't been cranking the thing at all, so that's positive.
Thankfully, I haven't been cranking the thing at all, so that's positive.
drewfx
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reluctant-builder said:
This is odd to me - I can't picture a competent tech giving "waaaay too much" relief unless that's what you asked for (or there was some communication problem). I would think most techs would give you as little relief as necessary unless you specified otherwise. The only reason for intentionally adding lots of relief is if you're an unusually super aggressive player, the string tension on the lower strings is so low that they will buzz otherwise, or trying to solve some other problem the wrong way.
And I'm not clear here. You're using 12's in what tuning? And how are you measuring the relief? A decent neck shouldn't require going crazy with the truss rod to get it reasonable straight under normal tensions.
As for the bass, I can only say that action on a bass that a typical guitar player calls "big enough to drive a truck under", some of us bassists might call "not quite high enough". :icon_biggrin:
reluctant-builder
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My tech isn't a GC or BB guy, but he does play a rather aggressive style and I think that sometimes translates into how he treats other people's guitars. Kind of like the remark about the "too high" bass action being "not quite high enough" ( :icon_biggrin
, my tech's touch might be informed my a similar disposition. That said, I don't think that's such a good thing, if it's the case, since how he plays shouldn't really factor into how my guitar is treated. The pimples and the youth are gone, but I'm obviously still a bit green in re: guitar knowledge.
I'm measuring the action by applying a capo to the first fret, depressing at the 22nd and then checking the space between the low-E and the 12th fret, which -- right now -- is 2/16.
, my tech's touch might be informed my a similar disposition. That said, I don't think that's such a good thing, if it's the case, since how he plays shouldn't really factor into how my guitar is treated. The pimples and the youth are gone, but I'm obviously still a bit green in re: guitar knowledge.I'm measuring the action by applying a capo to the first fret, depressing at the 22nd and then checking the space between the low-E and the 12th fret, which -- right now -- is 2/16.
Cagey
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This is on a guitar? If so, that's WAY off. On a bass, I don't know.
On a guitar, if the frets are good, you should be around .010", give or take .002". You're saying it's at .125", which is about 12 times too much. You could fly helicopters underneath that <grin>
You need to tighten that truss rod to get rid of all that space.
On a guitar, if the frets are good, you should be around .010", give or take .002". You're saying it's at .125", which is about 12 times too much. You could fly helicopters underneath that <grin>
You need to tighten that truss rod to get rid of all that space.
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