-
I have this new guitar, a Stanford crossroad 35 semi. It seems like I have to adjust the trussrod every day for days now as the strings (skinny .010s) keep pulling the neck into relieve
On the other hand the guitar stays in tune and the neck seems stable while playing – no 80s Bill Frisell vibratos if I don't really want to do that (I prefer not to).
I don't want to overdo it so here's my question: Does it maybe just need some time to settle in?
How long should I wait between adjustments? I'm doing 1/4 turns, maybe 1.5/4 turns at a time.
Right now I think I've straightened the neck just a little bit too much – should I relieve it right away or wait a little bit if it stays or moves some more?
-
06-09-2022 10:37 AM
-
I wait 24 hours (minima) when I adjust the neck 1/4 turn.
If I adjust 1/2 or 1 complete turn (happened to a guitar I lent for years to a friend and the neck was ....not good at all), I will wait 3 complete days, but that's me.
-
I rarely adjust a truss rod by 1/4 turn. That's a lot of adjustment for me. 10 or 20 degrees is more usual, often less. If the relief is already close, it doesn't take much.
-
Is it unusually dry where you are at? Because it's new the wood may have been slightly green and drying out this would add relief. Maybe it needs a bit of time to realize it's a guitar now.
-
Good advice - you can't be too careful - and I also rarely twist a truss rod more than 1/8 of a turn at a time, with a day or three's wait to see if there's been any satisfactory relief correction.
Back in 2005 I ordered an Aria FA-71 in the U.K. Strangely, I had to wait about 5 weeks for delivery from the U.K. distributor to my local shop - so maybe a new batch was in progress somewhere in the Far East - who knows? The guitar, when it finally arrived - was great in all other respects for the money - but never felt right re. the action. Every time I took it out of its' Hiscox case the action felt different to the day before. I ended up doing regular minor truss rod turns and eventually swapping it for something else. But........ U.K. jazz player Jim Mullen got lucky however - he seems to have been playing his (seemingly identical to mine) FA-71 for the past twenty years or more - and sounding great doing so.
I now play a good old 1975-ish Greco SA-700 (non-varitone ES-345 copy with original trapeze swapped out for a stop tailpiece) - shipped over from Japan about 4 years ago. This has a nice straight neck in the winter and a small concave relief in the summer (probably just the opposite of what might be expected to happen!). But the sound and resonance are so nice - even with that slight neck bend - that I'm loathe to interfere with the truss rod just to get a 'dream' action all year round.
I'm no guitar tech - but my gut feeling is that the more you adjust a truss rod - and in whichever direction - the shorter you're making it's useful adjustment life for future decades - so I've decided to live with very minor imperfections. I'm sure someone will correct me instantly on this...........?
-
Just like any other threaded rod, some wear through turning the nut on it is inevitable, but I don't believe that it would make a measurable amount of wear. The wood at the ends of the rod will also suffer some amount of compression, but a partial turn of the nut will overcome that. The only trussrod failures I know of resulted from the nut being corroded to the rod through not being moved for very long periods, and thus the rod being snapped through overtorquing. I think periodic movements of the nut, in both directions, are beneficial.
-
If you are worried about thread wear then lubricate the nut once in a while. But you will not wear out the trussrod by adjusting it. Rust is the enemy, not wear
Originally Posted by QsDuesBlues
Good advice - you can't be too careful - and I also rarely twist a truss rod more than 1/8 of a turn at a time, with a day or three's wait to see if there's been any satisfactory relief correction.
Back in 2005 I ordered an Aria FA-71 in the U.K. Strangely, I had to wait about 5 weeks for delivery from the U.K. distributor to my local shop - so maybe a new batch was in progress somewhere in the Far East - who knows? The guitar, when it finally arrived - was great in all other respects for the money - but never felt right re. the action. Every time I took it out of its' Hiscox case the action felt different to the day before. I ended up doing regular minor truss rod turns and eventually swapping it for something else. But........ U.K. jazz player Jim Mullen got lucky however - he seems to have been playing his (seemingly identical to mine) FA-71 for the past twenty years or more - and sounding great doing so.
I now play a good old 1975-ish Greco SA-700 (non-varitone ES-345 copy with original trapeze swapped out for a stop tailpiece) - shipped over from Japan about 4 years ago. This has a nice straight neck in the winter and a small concave relief in the summer (probably just the opposite of what might be expected to happen!). But the sound and resonance are so nice - even with that slight neck bend - that I'm loathe to interfere with the truss rod just to get a 'dream' action all year round.
I'm no guitar tech - but my gut feeling is that the more you adjust a truss rod - and in whichever direction - the shorter you're making it's useful adjustment life for future decades - so I've decided to live with very minor imperfections. I'm sure someone will correct me instantly on this...........?
Skickat från min iPad med Tapatalk
-
I only adjust truss rods if I change the string gauge/tension (unless it's a new guitar that I am setting up for the first time). Depending on the guitar, a 1/4 turn can be the difference between 10 or 11 and 12 gauge strings. So yes, it's a fairly large adjustment.
I adjust it and play the guitar daily for a few days before I consider changing it again. Also, best not to make the adjustments under extreme weather conditions, especially temperature.
-
The time before effects kick should be a lot shorter with a double-action TR, no?
(Idem with tigthening the TR aka straightening the neck?!)
-
It has been so long since I changed string gauges that I don't remember whether this necessitated truss rod adjustments with my guitars. But my guitars usually need seasonal adjustment to reduce relief in the fall/winter when home heating kicks in, and then to put relief back in spring when the heat goes off and humidity comes back.
When I do this, adjusting the truss rod has an (so far as I can tell) immediate effect. However if the neck is unstable and/or hasn't reached equilibrium with whatever is happening in the environment that caused a change in relief then it may need more adjustments. I think maybe this gives the impression that the truss rod adjustment doesn't kick in right away, but I think in fact it does.
-
It's immediate, IME. The need for adjustments depends primarily on the action. The lower the action, the more likely adjustment will be needed, but it won't require much. I keep my action usually under 1mm for electrics, a little higher for acoustic. Action this low requires a perfectly cut nut and perfectly level frets, and even a very minor movement of the neck can cause buzzing, and a truss rod adjustment. I play with a relatively light touch, and heavy picking will require higher action. If the action is a good deal higher than this, and it commonly is, adjustment may never be required. My personal preference is as low as possible while still sounding good, and a little fret slap with heavier picking is acceptable. You hear this with many players. It's personal taste, and not everyone is willing to accept it. I don't want to have to fight the strings. Everything is a compromise, and the acceptable compromise point is different for everyone. Truss rod adjustments are not that hard, and everyone should learn to do it, because it can make playing easier and more pleasant.
-
From what I understand, straightening the neck by tightening the TR is immediate and probably doesn't change (much) afterwards if things are stable because you're going against the string tension. With a single-action TR, loosening it allows it and thus the neck to be bent by string tension, and this will take some time to stabilise. With a double-action TR you actually push the neck concave just like can pull it straight so the (final effect of the) action should be more immediate.
-
I think what may happen is that, say you put heavier strings on a guitar. The neck immediately moves in response to the extra tension, so you adjust the truss rod. But the neck will continue to move slightly due to the string change, so extra tweaks to the truss rod may be needed. By making the initial adjustment, you make the guitar more playable, and after a few days as the string tension change moves the neck a bit more, you can tweak the truss rod again.
Reply With Quote
No more 10" Neo Speakers?
Today, 10:31 AM in Guitar, Amps & Gizmos