In the "What Have You Bought Guitar-related Recently" thread, I posted that I'd purchased a truss rod wrench because my Taylor acoustic has developed significant gapping at the 12th fret.
Now, I've always been reluctant to tinker with my guitars. Changing strings is about the depth of my technical wizardry with guitars. But since I don't have any compunction against working on cars, computers, and other gear, I felt that adjusting the truss rod would be a minor task making major improvement.
Well, I guess I was wrong. I removed the plate covering the truss rod, and gave it a small (about 1/8) turn to the left. Loosening it. No evident change. Another turn. Still no improvement. Another turn. Same. By the time I gave up, the truss rod felt so loose that I feared it would just disconnect.
Maybe I should have tightened it? My thinking was that if the neck was bowing upward, there was too much tension being exerted by the strings, so the right thing to do would be to loosen the truss rod. No?
Anyway. This just reinforces my nervous approach to self-maintaining my guitars. Before I take it to the shop for a real tech to work on it, I thought I'd post to the assembled experts here for advice and suggestions. Anyone?