First Truss Rod Adjustment (seeking advice)

[MartinGibsonFan]

How about stripping the thread, over tightening.

I'm just totally surprised how people cannot imagine how Friendly Advice can turn into a nightmare for someone that follows advice.

OH, I was supposed to put it in Park? Said the man that died while crawling under his car to change the oil.


MGF

[warfrat73]

If you read my first post, you'll notice that I made a point of saying that if the OP tightens it a 1/4" WITHOUT FORCING ANYTHING you're not going to hurt it. And if that didn't get the OP where he wanted, to take it to a tech.

I stand by that. It's not alchemy.

We also know that it had just been loosened. I find it really hard to believe that the shop loosened it less than a 1/4 of a turn, especially since the OP saw such a difference as a result. So tightening it a 1/4 turn is realistically just taking up some of the slack recently introduced into it.

Truss rods are meant to be adjusted. Just be careful, and don't force it.

[rllink]

Soon after I got my Taylor I watched this video put out by Taylor demonstrating how to adjust the truss rod. If you are afraid of your truss rod watch the video.

https://www.taylorguitars.com/suppor...od-adjustments

A quote from the page introducing the video. "The truss rod is fairly rugged, so you shouldn't worry about experimenting with different adjustments."

You can often times remove the buzz with the truss rod. I've done it. It is the first thing I try because it is so simple to do.

[Peter Z]

Now I'm getting curous. Has anyone already killed a guitar while adjusting the truss rod? I really want to know because on one side you read about that in the www on the other side I played around a lot with truss rods for decades, even in times when I had no clue about it and nothing bad ever happened.
I also never met anyone who damaged a guitar with truss rod adjustments. But it seems to happen.
Now I really want to know: what has to be done to create a damage?

[Dru Edwards]

Hi mbrh138, welcome to the AGF!

I'm assuming that the action was to your liking when you brought the guitar back from the tech? 5 days later there's buzzing? Sounds like the guitar is acclimating to its new environment, which is usual. You may need a slight 1/8 to 1/4 turn truss rod adjustment.

Can you confirm that the guitar is properly humidified?

[Mr. Jelly]

I know there are some people that take their guitar to the music store to get the strings changed. I'm not sure they know how to tune it, but that's their business. Everyone has to to have a starting place on the learning curve to maintaining a guitar. So yes, mistakes will be made. And yes, knowledge will be gained.

[JayBee1404]

Originally Posted by Peter Z

Now I'm getting curous. Has anyone already killed a guitar while adjusting the truss rod?....... I played around a lot with truss rods for decades, even in times when I had no clue about it and nothing bad ever happened.

I haven’t ‘killed’ a guitar, but I ‘killed’ a truss rod while adjusting it. The guitar was my Lowden O25, and the rod broke while I was increasing tension. Cost me £600 ($900) to have a new rod, fingerboard, and nut installed by the Lowden Guitar Co. workshop in Downpatrick, N. Ireland.

I second warfrat’s point regarding truss-rod adjustment - don’t force things.

[mawmow]

First of all, I am amazed that a Gibson L-00 arrived by mail without proper setup !
But these things happen too often...
That is why the warranty should cover at least first year adjustments.

A lateral view of the neck is mandatory to ascertain action over the entire neck.

Second, someone lossened the truss rod to get rid of a buzz but only five days later,
you find action too high.
My guess is the action at nut may be too high while the neck is almost dead straight
(but should have a very slight bow).

If the truss rod has been relieved, there is no doubt you could straighten it a bit
without any damage, but I suspect the problem is not as simple and you should
seek a second opinion.

By the way, you would learn from an expert to make seasonal adjustments
on this fine instrument.

And please, do not shave the nut at the bridge (a too frequent and faulty move
in my opinion) as these little instruments need a steep string angle behind the
nut to get the optimal pressure on the top to optimally transmit the vibrations.

[Andyrondack]

Originally Posted by mbrh138

Hey everyone, this is my first post on AGF, been loving all the content on here! I recently bought a Gibson L00, it arrived by mail and it had a slight fret buzz, and basically i took it into the store, the luthier looked at it and told the guy at the desk to loosen the truss rod a bit, but now that it has settled in (about five days from that adjustment) I've found that the action is a little higher than I'd like. I want to just do this adjustment myself, as i think just a quarter turn tightening would get it back to where i want it. Is it too soon after that adjustment? Should i wait a few more days to let the neck further settle? Am i overthinking this?

I'm just paranoid, as I have never adjusted the truss on my own before, though doing research, it seems pretty straightforward in this case. Just want any advice you guys might have for performing this.

Thanks in advance.

The truss rod sets neck relief, never adjust the truss rod to change the action or the neck relief will be wrong, check the neck relief is in an acceptable range, adjust the rod if it's not then deal with the too high action problem by sanding the saddle at the bridge. But first do some research to find out what a reasonable guitar action is and get a set of feeler guages to measure it properly at the 12 th fret.

[Peter Z]

Originally Posted by JayBee1404

I haven’t ‘killed’ a guitar, but I ‘killed’ a truss rod while adjusting it. The guitar was my Lowden O25, and the rod broke while I was increasing tension. Cost me £600 ($900) to have a new rod, fingerboard, and nut installed by the Lowden Guitar Co. workshop in Downpatrick, N. Ireland.

I second warfrat’s point regarding truss-rod adjustment - don’t force things.

Thanks for that info. Seems I had luck for decades. I really don‘t want to put salt in that wound, but would you elaborate what happened? Was there any resistance, bad cracking noise or some signs before the truss rod broke?
I bought a 42 years old Ibanez two weeks ago that had quite a relief. I admit, there was a resistance when I made the first move. I think, I was the first one doing this with that guitar as I am the third owner after all this years and the one before me owned it for more than 30 years and didn’t touch it.
So, I turned left a little before turning right, but then it worked out fine (and it needed much more than 1/4th of a turn).

I don‘t think a luther can do anything else. But of course, he would be responsible if something breaks.
I might be wrong, but I think, if a truss rod or the nut breaks, there is something wrong with the guitar. It’s a shame, that a great company like Lowden charges that much for a failure of their truss rod. Again, I might be wrong.
I just think that way after hundreds of truss rod adjustments.

[Ralph124C41]

Originally Posted by Andyrondack

The truss rod sets neck relief, never adjust the truss rod to change the action or the neck relief will be wrong, check the neck relief is in an acceptable range, adjust the rod if it's not then deal with the too high action problem by sanding the saddle at the bridge. But first do some research to find out what a reasonable guitar action is and get a set of feeler guages to measure it properly at the 12 th fret.

Agree. Btw, if you don't have a set of feeler gauges or a string action gauge, you can use something else, like U.S. coins. Just use online web sites to tell you how thick the coins are and then go from there. But definitely get some other tools ... I use feeler gauges as I have a hard time using the string action gauge I got. (you know, old eyes)

[KevinH]

Just curious, do you relieve some of the tension on the neck while adjusting the truss rod - by pressing down on the (supported) neck near the nut? Bryan Kimsey describes that method - scroll to around the 6:45 mark in the video. I find it makes it a lot easier to adjust the truss rod.

Originally Posted by Peter Z

.... I admit, there was a resistance when I made the first move. I think, I was the first one doing this with that guitar as I am the third owner after all this years and the one before me owned it for more than 30 years and didn’t touch it....

[JayBee1404]

Originally Posted by KevinH

Just curious, do you relieve some of the tension on the neck while adjusting the truss rod - by pressing down on the (supported) neck near the nut? Bryan Kimsey describes that method - scroll to around the 6:45 mark in the video. I find it makes it a lot easier to adjust the truss rod.

I, for one, agree with you - whenever I adjust a truss rod I ‘help’ it by the method you describe, and it does make adjustment easier.

That said, I’m not one of those who tweaks the truss rod regularly. My experience is that, after the first couple of years in a guitar’s life, and once neck relief is correctly set (for me that’s 0.006” - 0.008”), it seldom if ever needs adjusting.

[Br1ck]

oops, meant to say slacken strings before tightening truss rod.

[Mike McLenison]

Originally Posted by justonwo

Hmmm . . . I think for anyone that is playing with anything but the absolute softest, most delicate touch, having no relief and action of 1/16" (0.0625") would be considered a recipe for extreme buzzing. A perfectly straight neck usually doesn't work very well if you want to eliminate buzz, particularly if you want action that low. 1/16" would generally be considered extremely low action - too low to be practical. I couldn't even get away with that on my electric guitars.

Exactly why I mentioned it my friend. BTW, my electrics have lower action. There is a science to it but it works. Glad I am a machinist.