Neck Relief & Temperature

[stucker]

This winter I tried reducing the relief (tightening the truss) on my Taylor 314-CE and noticed a big improvement in playbility with no degradation in tone.

Then a couple weeks ago I began to get an annoying buzz on my E 1st
string that was really apparent with amplification. I noticed that we had unusually high winter temperatures (mid-70s) during that time.

Do any of you routinely adjust your truss rods as the temperature changes?

[Nash Rambler]

No, I never change the relief unless I'm doing a set-up. I do check the relief when I change strings but just as a matter of routine.

[pops]

That depends on the instrument. Some never need it, others at least 2-4 times a year. My wife's Gibson needs it several times a year, maybe because the neck vibrates with playing so much it loosens the nut on the rod, who knows, but some do, some don't.

[Bruce Sexauer]

There is a correct setting for neck relief, and if the guitar is properly made using mahogany and ebony and a modern truss rod, once set and stabilized, most truss rods should never need to be addressed again unless string tension or playing style changes. At least until serious fret work is done.

Temperature is tied to humidity, and without knowing where and how you live it is hard to make a blanket assessment. In damp conditions a top may swell in which case action goes up, and it dry conditions the top shrinks and action may go down. The truss Rod is the wrong way to correct these seasonal changes because it only addresses relief, which is not what changed. The correct change is a higher or lower saddle.

I do supply most of my guitars with two saddles, one a sixteenth inch taller that the other. This makes a thirty second of an inch difference at the twelfth fret, and more than nine times out of ten this is enough. Even if the customer does not ever change to the other saddle, if the relief is correct the guitar should play evenly and without deal-killer difficulty with either saddle, though it may be a little stiff at one extreme, or a little choked at the other.

If you hold your high e string down against the first and last frets and tap string around the seventh to tenth fret against the fingerboard, you should hear it click but not see much if any clearance. Difficult to actually measure, but two or three thou is my ideal. Ideally, low E relief, checked the same way, should be actually visible, and be between five and ten thou, certainly no more than the thickness of the e string.

Most novices are WAY too aggressive with truss Rod adjustment. There are many different rods, so no absolute formula. The Rod I use is a single action from LMI called TRST. Once the nut is seated and the slack taken up, it is a rare guitar that it not over tightened with a half turn! Usually, a sixth turn makes a major difference. Three out of four times a customer complains to me about action trouble on one of my guitars it is remedied in just seconds by readjusting the truss Rod which was worked on by someone without a clear concept.

[pops]

Originally Posted by Bruce Sexauer

There is a correct setting for neck relief, and if the guitar is properly made using mahogany and ebony and a modern truss rod, once set and stabilized, most truss rods should never need to be addressed again unless string tension or playing style changes. At least until serious fret work is done.

Temperature is tied to humidity, and without knowing where and how you live it is hard to make a blanket assessment. In damp conditions a top may swell in which case action goes up, and it dry conditions the top shrinks and action may go down. The truss Rod is the wrong way to correct these seasonal changes because it only addresses relief, which is not what changed. The correct change is a higher or lower saddle.

I do supply most of my guitars with two saddles, one a sixteenth inch taller that the other. This makes a thirty second of an inch difference at the twelfth fret, and more than nine times out of ten this is enough. Even if the customer does not ever change to the other saddle, if the relief is correct the guitar should play evenly and without deal-killer difficulty with either saddle, though it may be a little stiff at one extreme, or a little choked at the other.

If you hold your high e string down against the first and last frets and tap string around the seventh to tenth fret against the fingerboard, you should hear it click but not see much if any clearance. Difficult to actually measure, but two or three thou is my ideal. Ideally, low E relief, checked the same way, should be actually visible, and be between five and ten thou, certainly no more than the thickness of the e string.

Most novices are WAY too aggressive with truss Rod adjustment. There are many different rods, so no absolute formula. The Rod I use is a single action from LMI called TRST. Once the nut is seated and the slack taken up, it is a rare guitar that it not over tightened with a half turn! Usually, a sixth turn makes a major difference. Three out of four times a customer complains to me about action trouble on one of my guitars it is remedied in just seconds by readjusting the truss Rod which was worked on by someone without a clear concept.

I adjust my wife's '51 LG2 usually 4 times a year. It has nothing to do with action, but only relief. As I said earlier some guitars need adjusting more often than others and some of us actually know what the truss rod is supposed to do.

[stucker]

I think I was guilty of being too aggressive in setting the relief for a little lower action. Plus, I remembered that I recently started playing with someone who likes to tune down 1/2 step. So, I loosened my truss rod about 1/8 of a turn and the buzz is mostly gone now. Thanks for everyone's comments and suggestions.

[LouieAtienza]

Note also that either because of a trussrod that may be too tight in it's channel, or the neck woods taking a "set", or the neck is predominantly stiff on its own, it may take hours for the full effect of a trussrod adjustment to be seen.