Truss rod adjustment

[brianhejh]

Hi Guys

I am currently watching a DVD on adjusting a steel string guitar by Kent Carlos Everett.
In the truss rod adjustment episode he adjusts the truss rod on an acoustic guitar - gives it at least a quarter turn clockwise (under tension) OUTCH! He comments that it is not necessary to loosen the strings? - Is this correct.

Brian

[charles Tauber]

Originally Posted by brianhejh

Is this correct.

Yup.

There are two situations in which I find it necessary to loosen the strings to adjust a truss rod. The first is if the truss rod nut is not accessible with the strings on and at tension (e.g. some Fender electric guitars). The second is single-action tension rods aren't mechanically very efficient. On some guitars with that type of rod, if an excessive amount of force seems to be necessary, I'll loosen the strings to ease adjustment.

[ricklt]

I personally would loosen the strings every time, if I was tightening the truss rod,or in other words straightening the neck.

[Howard Klepper]

I build with single rods.

I always adjust at full string tension.

When tightening, I always flex the neck back over a block so there is no pressure on the nut as I tighten. I am surprised that so few people seem to know about this. It's how I was taught 47 years ago and I've done it ever since.

[brianhejh]

Thanks for the feedback guys, Howard that was something I never would of thought of and makes good sense. Re Paul Simons words, He must have stolen those from my three ex wives.

What I like about this site is the cross reference of knowledge available it really is invaluable.

I am not a luthier however I do fix guitars on a small scale therefore I am extremely interested in learning (CORRECTLY) as much as I can.

I opened this topic with the enquiry about what I had watched on a DVD re guitar set up re the truss rod adjustment. Progressing through the video was the instruction to set the nut height by measuring the distance between bottom of the strings and the fret board at the first (3) frets. ( no mention of the fret height and the relationship to the bottom of the string)

Comments were that the height should be 4/64ths IE 50thou from the bottom of the string to the fret board.
It is not my intention to be critical of the person teaching in the DVD but rather better understand the correct method of guitar set up. My belief is that without knowing the fret height in relation to the string which would vary for many reasons on different guitars how could you set the distance between the bottom of the string and the top of the fret accurately in order to avoid fret buzz etc.

I would appreciate your comments

Brian

[surveyor]

4/64=0.063. this refers to the distance in inches from the top of the fret to the bottom of the string at the 12th fret, a "standard" kind of measurement for citing the guitar's action. That's a good fingerpicking action if you can get it without the frets buzzing out in the upper register with a medium attack on the strings. For bluegrass I set mine at about .080 (close to 5/64")

[surveyor]

I should have added that most of the adjustment from the truss rod only flattens or bows the neck and doesn't affect the action near as much as the saddle height, assuming the nut slots are cut properly.

[murrmac123]

Originally Posted by Howard Klepper

When tightening, I always flex the neck back over a block so there is no pressure on the nut as I tighten. .

Absolutely.

It's basically the same as avoiding backlash on lathes, milling machines, or drill press tables ... when you lower your drill press table, you lower the table and then bring it up to the desired height ... that way you avoid the almighty and disconcerting "clunk" as it settles into place once you start drilling .

EDIT : actually, thinking about it, my analogy isn't entirely accurate.
A more accurate comparison would be to imagine you had something really heavy on the drill press table, and you needed to raise it to drill another hole .... you would remove the workpiece, raise the table to the required height and then replace the workpiece, thereby obviating the strain on the rack and pinion mechanism.