Truss Rod State

[SOLR]

To all those who've bought used guitars,
how do you ensure the truss rod is operational on the instruments? I'M assuming that it,s ok because the neck appears straight, but you can't just go ahead and spin the rod in the sellers home (if you have the tools...)

Thx

S

[Dennis D]

To all those who've bought used guitars,
how do you ensure the truss rod is operational on the instruments? I'M assuming that it,s ok because the neck appears straight, but you can't just go ahead and spin the rod in the sellers home (if you have the tools...)
Thx
S

You could ' spin the nut ', then see that it turns in both directions, and still have a bow develop that a working truss rod couldn't adjust.

I'd learned to ask whether a guitar's truss rod works, but had to learn from my luthier what ' works' actually meant. ( Another reason to search out a decent local luthier. )
A truss rod can be adjusted - -either tightened or loosened - - to compensate, within limits, for a bow in the neck.
But that being said, if the adjustment your neck may ever need exceeds the truss rod threads remaining in that direction, then while yes, the truss rod still technically works, you're now 'out of threads' that would normally correct that condition in the neck. You'd therefore have to find another way to
' make the bow go away '.
So if the neck is straight, great.
And if you've got a decent luthier, great again !

Good luck. Hope that helps.

[sgosnell]

The only way I know of to tell if the truss rod works is to adjust it by turning the adjustment nut both ways.

[Dennis D]

The only way I know of to tell if the truss rod works is to adjust it by turning the adjustment nut both ways.

Then, what's involved with repairing - replacing a stripped / broken tr ?

Thx

[deacon Mark]

If the neck is fine then depending on the truss rod it might be that you could look at it to tell possibly where sits. Turning a truss rod is not as simple as it sounds. I never tighten a truss with tension on the neck. I will loosen a truss rod with tension that is ok. Many do not hold my belief but that is my training under some of the best guitar builders. Also, truss rods do not always respond completely right away it may take a day or two to settle out. Finally, truss rod adjustments all the time are not needed or should not be needed once the guitar reaches an equilibrium. This generally happens pretty quickly and only drastic changes in string size and environment require any adjustment.

To be truthful I have never asked this question before when buying a guitar and I bought many for sure. I do ask about the neck and relief. If you came to house and wanted to do this on a guitar, I was selling I would not allow you to do this. Not because I was hiding anything but because I have not adjusted the truss rod on my guitars in some case close to 40 years. One of my guitars does not have a truss rod but a super fine rolled steel bar inside the neck. The neck is fine and has been since 1937.

On a decent guitar if the neck has proper relief and it is playing ok then you are probably good go. If the strings are super slinky .09-42 and you are planning on putting .12-52 it could require adjustment. I have never bought a guitar with string like that because I would have to play the guitar with the same general size I use. Moral of the story is .09-42 on a Gibson L5 would be disaster to evaluate no matter what.

[sgosnell]

Fixing a broken truss rod involves removing the fingerboard and replacing the rod, then reinstalling the fretboard. It's not a simple job. A stripped rod can sometimes be fixed by cutting new threads a little deeper, depending on how badly it is stripped and how far the nut goes onto it, and whether it's possible to cut threads for a smaller diameter nut. Stripped is usually better than broken.
I probably wouldn't let someone I didn't know well to adjust the truss rod on a guitar I was selling either. People do stupid things. All I was saying is that adjusting it is the only way to be sure that it works. If you absolutely have to know that before you buy a used guitar, good luck buying one, unless you can convince the owner to do it for you. I might consider doing it to convince a buyer, but I won't guarantee that I would.

[SOLR]

I

To be truthful I have never asked this question before when buying a guitar and I bought many for sure. I do ask about the neck and relief. If you came to house and wanted to do this on a guitar, I was selling I would not allow you to do this. Not because I was hiding anything but because I have not adjusted the truss rod on my guitars in some case close to 40 years.
.

....

Did not want to set a precedent walking in his house with my wrench

Thx

S

[kris]

There is always a risk when buying used instruments.
It depends a lot on who played the instrument and whether owner adjusted the neck of the guitar at all.

[Dennis D]

Fwiw, I've owned my '37 L-7 for +/- 20 years, and my '52 L-7 for 15.....Each time I had the same luthier look at them before I bought them, and each time I made a point of saying that I thought each truss rod worked.
And each time he told me that he didn't at all like 'crankin' on old truss rods'......The '50's one was where I learned about tr threads etc...The lesson for me was he'd do whatever other things he could ( neck press etc ) before he'd get cranking on a 30+ year old truss rod.....And each has always been set up perfectly, although the '50's one took way more fiddling.......

[sgosnell]

For a very old guitar, which hasn't had the rod adjusted in many years, there is certainly risk. There is no way of knowing how much rust and bimetal corrosion that may be in there. The only truss rod I've ever broken was in a guitar that had been stored in a dank, damp outside storm cellar for years, and it was so badly rusted that it snapped with what I thought was relatively gentle torque. Rust will eat completely through steel quicker than you think possible. That's one reason I like to adjust mine every so often whether it needs it or not, just to keep it working, and a drop of oil every few years helps, I think. Not a gallon, just the smallest drop I can apply. I can certainly understand a repair person not wanting to touch the truss rod on an old guitar, because breaking it will cost him an unacceptable amount of time and work to repair it. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" applies. It's the same with clockmakers. Most will refuse to even oil a grandfather style clock, for fear of it not working properly after, then being blamed for breaking it. Cranking on the truss rod of a guitar you're thinking of buying has the same danger - you break it, you bought it. Instead, get a return guarantee, and if the rod doesn't work, return it. But if you break it, the return may not be possible. There are very few things in life that are without any danger. One just has to accept and manage the perils as well as one can.

[deacon Mark]

If you do a fret dressing then you pretty much have to make an adjustment on the truss rod before you begin the dressing. Not always 100% of the time but mostly. To dress the frets you need to have the neck as straight as possible without the strings. Therefore on a fret dressing you remove the strings and check the neck. Then if neck is not straight or damn close you have to adjust the rod so that the neck is straight. Then proceed with the fret dressing.

So if you get you guitars frets dressed this is a good time to check the truss rod. However, there are exceptions because no all guitars have truss rods and this requires different approach. From my own experience of dressing the frets many times modern necks are almost straight and very little relief. Sometimes I remove the strings and the neck does not change so I go ahead and do the fret dressing without any truss rod adjustment.

Point I have made in the past. Sometimes a neck will have a large amount of bow in it and require probably a pretty good amount of truss rod adjustment. In these cases for the sake of safety I actually will use a jig I made and a Jorgensen clamp to help the neck bow. What I do is set up the jig and induce a positive bow ( bending backwards) in the neck. Then I actually do the truss rod adjustment by first taken a a bit of tension off the rod with a small 1/4 turn or so. Then I go ahead and tighten the rod to what I think will be enough to at least get the neck correct after strings are on. Even if I overshoot it a bit that is ok I can back off tension with strings on the guitar.

What this does it in effect do is a new set point for the neck. This method is reserved for necks that are really bowed more than normal, and the occasional situation that the truss rod is getting to the end of its limit for adjustment. Many times, a reset doing the procedure can cure the problem with nothing more to do. This to me is taken the most cautionary approach to truss rods and avoids what sgosnell says about breaking a truss rod. In general truss rods are hard to break but once you have broken one then you don't want to do it again. I saw Bill Barker repair a broken truss rod on a Gibson Les Paul once. He was a master and it was fine but wow, a lot of work to say the least.

Finally off topic some but to me a huge informative video was Ken Parker when did a set up on this D'aquisto. It was tremendous how he approach the work and has me re-thinking my own way of doing some set ups and refret dressing. Watch it!