Which way to turn Truss Rod?

[nottswarwick]

I was glad to learn how to do this sort of thing myself. I have found it really quite easy, and enjoyable.

I bought a set of Cruz Tools, including feeler gauges, millions of Allen keys, ruler, etc etc. about £40, with a little guide on how to do it all.

Not cheap, but quality tools, and actually about 70% of what my excellent local luthier charges for a basic set up.

I am confident in simple truss, action and intonation work now on all my guitars and basses.

I would still get a pro to do things like cutting nuts sand bridge slots and anything fancier, but for keeping things playing well and adjusting for string changes, down tuning etc, I have already saved myself a load of cash.

It's really not hard. Well, I am as happy with my results as I have been when paying someone else to do it

[steve-bbb]

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1380183678' post='2221844']
Yeah I think that might be the answer, It was fine when I tested it in the shop then a couple of days later the buzz came back... Maybe I have bigger problems with this bass
[/quote]

how long did they keep it when they did the setup? if the shop did a largish adjustment all in one go then it will take up the intial adjustment immediately but will still be stretching and settling over the next couple of days

a friend of mine who is very good with setups usually asks to keep the bass/guitar for 4 or 5 days and will tweak it a bit each day rather than do one large adjustment in a single day - when i do my own setups i tend to do the same, small adjustments and leave it a day - if it needs more the next day i'll give it another half turn and let it settle, and repeat over a few days until it ends up where you want it

[CamdenRob]

[quote name='nottswarwick' timestamp='1380482248' post='2225999']
I was glad to learn how to do this sort of thing myself. I have found it really quite easy, and enjoyable.

I bought a set of Cruz Tools, including feeler gauges, millions of Allen keys, ruler, etc etc. about £40, with a little guide on how to do it all.

Not cheap, but quality tools, and actually about 70% of what my excellent local luthier charges for a basic set up.
[/quote]

That sounds like a good idea... think I'll invest.

[molan]

As someone who helps out in a shop I have definitely noticed that adjustments are most likely to be needed in Spring and Autumn as the weather changes.

It's really unlike The Gallery not to get something right so I wonder if it shifted a little since they worked on it.

If they spot an obvious issue like a worn nut or uneven frets they will usually let you know whilst they have the bass.

I've had them slightly adjust the action after a setup before but that was mostly down to the fact that I hadn't really given them clear instructions in the first place. Once I said what I was after they fixed it in a flash

[Greggo]

Stupid question but how exactly does a truss rod work in the sense that tightening it bends the rod upwards? Is it the pressure of the nut against the rod that forces it to bend upwards?

[Ou7shined]

A trussrod is made from at least 2 "rods" joined together at both ends. Turning the nut is effectively lengthening or shortening one causing the other to either expand and therefore bend or in the middle or contract forcing the other one to bend.

[SparkBird]

[quote name='Greggo' timestamp='1381439869' post='2239283']
Stupid question but how exactly does a truss rod work in the sense that tightening it bends the rod upwards? Is it the pressure of the nut against the rod that forces it to bend upwards?
[/quote]
Its not a stupid question , its a good question .
Ther are several different styles of truss rod .
some have one rod , some have two .
Fender to my knowledge nearly always has one , but there have been to be some exceptions i think .
Fender guitar bass truss rod action :-
imagine the guitar is lying on the table fret side up, squat down chin on the table and look at the neck from the side , eg head left, butt end right.
If you had x ray eyes you'd see the trussrod ends lying a little under the nut and similarly just under the board at the butt end and running between these two points curved, down between those two ends to within a few mm's from the back of the neck .
Its lowest/deepest point being under the 7th fret .
So now when you tighten the screw nut ( which can't go in , its blocked off), the rod is pulled into the screw nut , but because the rods fixed at the other end and can't move the rod tries to straighten up .
That pushes/straightens up the rod at bottom of the curve under the 7th fret and pulls the neck at the headstock back wards or down towards the table .
Loosen the nut and the strings will normally pull the neck forward or upwards away from the table .
A little secret why fenders have the butt end hump or slope is because, well i'm convinced at least (i'd be happy for someone to con vince me otherwise), is because all the string pressure acts as a lever on the neck , so the most leverage is at the point where the neck gets thicker (more rigid) +-13th fret and joins the body [b][u]BUT[/u][/b] , the truss rod doesn't really have thet much influence there, so it allows the neck to bend around the 13th causing that hump/slope up from the 12th to the last fret .
Thats why to sight/read the neck you'll nearly always read " press string down at frets 1 and 12 and look for a little gap a round 7 " becuse 1 to 12 is the area the truss rod will have the most markable effect , what comes after that you're stuck with .

It is possible to over tighten the truss to have a hump at the 7th fret ,back bow and a s**t load of buzzing in the first few frets to the 7th.
But if you pressed the strings down at the 1st and last frets you could still see a gap at the seventh because of the slope up at the butt end lifting the strings up off the frets .

Confused ? sorry its complicated to explain ..... i don't think i'll ever do it again , i need a beer.

Anyway; hence the modern two rod design which more evenly applies pressure along the length of the neck , but thats another story .