I have a truss rod adjusment question for you guys that I hope you can help me with. I have an 02 American strat that had too much relif in the neck. I tightened the rod at the headstock by about 1/16 turn and I heard a slight creak or pop at the headstock. Needless to say I stopped there. How much ressistance should I be feeling? If someone could answer my question it would be greatly appreciated.
If you are new to this I would take it to a shop. On my 2001 Am DLX there is "SOME" tension and creaking when I adjust but without your guitar in my hands it is very hard to tell.
I'm certain any shop tech would gladly give you a 5 minute lesson for no charge.
With the guitar lying down and you looking down the neck towards the bridge remember this saying, "Lefty loosy Righty tighty" (From Dan's book). This way you won't go in the wrong direction.
If it is a vintage guitar or a RI and the adjustment is at the other end of the neck I'm not sure which way to tighten.
Others will answer soon as well I am sure. Buy the way WELCOME!
brianf
Last edited by brianf; 12-07-2002 at 11:54 AM.
Oh Man!!! I never knew Fender made amps too!!!
You will feel quite a bit of resistance when you tighten a rod because you are straightening the neck against the tension of the strings. I usually detune slightly before tightening a truss rod, retune and check the relief. I then leave the guitar a few hours, check again and adjust.
You may get some creaking with truss rod adjustments but if you are in any doubt, stop and take the guitar to a reliable technician.
I wouldn't worry too much about noise - there's usually a fair amount of crud in there and not much grease. Make sure you use the right size allen wrench though - you don't want to mess up the adjustment nut in one of those. Fender and Gibson truss rods are curved downward in an arc away from the fretboard in the middle of the neck. Most will pull the neck well past the point of straight before the nut bottoms out but there are occasional manufacturing errors. They are hard to turn, especially if the strings are tuned to pitch. Sometimes it helps to lossen them a bit first to break the tension - then when you tighten you're more likely to feel it if they suddenly stop because they hit bottom.
Thanks for the welcome, I really lossened the strings before I adjusted the nutand the creaking is gone. I used the adjustment wrench the guitar came with. It is a pretty new guitar so I guess there was still some gunk in there. The neck is adjusted correctly now, thanks guys! The shop I bought it from gives me free setup because I bought it there but dropping it off gets to be a pain :)
Last edited by metallicbluestrat; 12-07-2002 at 04:54 PM.
How much do you guys reccommend de-tuning before adjusting the rod?
Only a little - it's just to relax the neck before you start straightening it. If you have to slacken the strings right off and the rod is still difficult to turn, get it checked out.
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