should i need to adjust my truss rod so often ?

[mushers]

to cut a short story even shorter, i set up my new to me bongo a couple of weeks back but came home this evening from work to find rattles on the lower notes caused a flat neck
we have had lots of rain today (but none inside ) its been warm but not roasting out.
my ray35 also needed the odd tweak here and there is this just how single action rods behave ?

[KiOgon]

You may find that you didn't leave in long enough to settle after your set up & it has continued to change since you thought you had it just right nothing to worry about, it often takes a few goes to get things exactly how you like them when you take on a new or second hand bass.

Patience is a virtue

[Chiliwailer]

I've had a lot of basses over the years, some hardly ever need adjusting and some need them quite often. I had a Stingray once which was so constantly in need I attached the adjuster tool to the back of the headstock!

Individual necks then appear to have different sensitivities to temperature change, so my advice is just to do it when it's needed. Currently my only bass/guitar which often needs one is my Sterling. I wonder if it's a coincidental Musc Man issue?

[gafbass02]

Every stingray I've had needed a lot of adjustment compared to ther basses. Also the thin neck on the Geddy Lee Jazz can be a bit high maintenance too.

[cloudburst]

My Bongo and fretless Sterling react exactly the same way to changes in temp. If the room has been colder, they will both have sharpened pretty much exactly the same amount, according to my tuner. This consistency gave me a bit of comfort.

My advice would be to adjust/check whilst your room has been at its average temperature, adjust only an eighth of a turn and leave for a day or more. Then check.

Leave yourself just a little bit more relief/action than you need and that way there will be a little give and take for temperature adjustments and you will find you aren't constantly adjusting the neck to and fro around the same point. You'll still be able to monitor those little temperature variations as your bass will be a little more sharp when it's cold and vice versa. But you won't be suffering from fretbuzz and can spend time playimng rather than adjusting.

This compromise has worked perfectly for me.

CB

PS: An alternative option would be to buy a Steinberger. :-)

Edited June 22, 2013 by cloudburst

[gjones]

I had to give up on a superlow action on my Geddy Lee, as it's very shallow neck always needed adjustment.

[chris_b]

I've never adjusted a neck!

My Lull is quite low but I've preferred a higher action on every other bass I've owned.

I find I don't get such a good tone from a very low action.

[Lozz196]

I`ve found that adjusting the truss-rod to how I want the action to be on the day means that after a day or two of settling, I then have to back off a bit. So now I do as Cloudburst, adjust an eighth of a turn, then leave it to settle. This is usually enough for adjusting due to weather/humidity.

[RhysP]

One of the main reasons I got rid of my Stingray 5 was that the neck was incredibly unstable; not as bad as my old Jaydee but pretty close.
I haven't had to adjust my Spector once since I got it, and the most stable bass I ever had was my old Atilla Balogh Odyssey - I owned it for best part of 20 years & never needed to adjust the trussrod once, even when changing string gauges.

[iconic]

Plus another on stingray necks needing tweaking more often than some

[deanovw]

I find that my jazz bass needs adjustment for summer and winter. I have just tweaked it this week after the warm weather we have had.

[BigRedX]

There have only been two circumstances that have required me to go fiddling about with the truss rod of any of my basses.

1. When I've bought a bass from another country which has a climate radically different to here in the UK.

2. When I've fitted so new strings with a noticeable difference in tension to the ones that were on the bass before.

[dincz]

Probably depends to some degree on your normal setup. I set my bass with very little neck relief so a change in weather can easily send it into rattle mode. More relief and a higher action would be less sensitive I guess.

[MoonBassAlpha]

The movement on MusicMan basses might be to do with the minimal finish on the necks, no? I imagine this allows the neck to take on moisture from atmospheric humidity more readily.

[hubrad]

That does make sense, MBA.

I had a MM Silhouette 6string a few years ago.. Of all the electric guitars I have ever owned that was the one that both needed, and responded to, truss rod tweaking. Minor tweaks but every time I picked it up.

Could be a MM thing.. Sounded great though!;-)

[cloudburst]

[quote name='MoonBassAlpha' timestamp='1372229662' post='2123032']
The movement on MusicMan basses might be to do with the minimal finish on the necks, no? I imagine this allows the neck to take on moisture from atmospheric humidity more readily.
[/quote]

Good theory - but in practice I don't think it to be the case.

My Bongo (painted neck) and fretless Sterling (unfinished neck) sit in the same room and react identically to temperature variation according to my TU-3.

CB

[MoonBassAlpha]

I'd expect them to react similarly if it was only the temperature that changed, how about big changes in humidity though?

[cloudburst]

[quote name='MoonBassAlpha' timestamp='1372315250' post='2124086']
I'd expect them to react similarly if it was only the temperature that changed, how about big changes in humidity though?
[/quote]
That's the thing - my two MusicMan instruments (painted and unfinished necks) always react in the same manner regardless of any 'environmental' change. I've yet to see even the smallest difference in their retuning requirements.

CB