Truss Rod Voodoo

[Josh Blagg]

This is about a US 57 Vintage Reissue Stratocaster and some of the things going on with the neck relief and truss rod.

There is fret buzz from about 5 up to the last fret. *Depending on which string, the amount of buzz can range from barely noticeable to very distracting. *I've basically ruled out everything that could be causing the buzzing other than neck relief.

I've checked for a high fret and just can't find anything out of the ordinary. *The neck, though probably not totally necessary, has been shimmed ever so slightly to get the neck angle near perfect. *It's also possible I am getting a sympathetic buzz from the pickguard or a screw, as it seems a few years ago I noticed something on the pickguard rattling. *However, my efforts to find anything of the sort have failed.

So when going to truss rod adjustment, I have had little luck. *The relief was basically 1/64" with the rod just a little looser than being fully tight. *I then tried loosening the rod a bit to get more relief. *I gave it over 24 hours to maybe pull forward a bit, but nothing different. *I then loosened the rod even more -- so now we are talking much closer to being all the way loose than all the way tight.

I made such an extreme adjustment to see if the truss rod was broken. *But after being tuned back to pitch (neck must be removed to make the truss adjustment), the relief was still exactly the same. *At that point I started to get worried, because I don't want to have the fretboard cut off of my guitar. * I retightened the rod to all the way without overtightening to see if I could tell ANY difference in relief.

Luckily, this time, I could measure a difference. *It went from just greater than 1/64" to about half of that or less. *Still, this is a very small change for such an extreme truss adjustment.

I am wondering if maybe the wood is so strong (neck and fretboard are both maple under nitro) that the pull from the strings just won't pull it forward. *I was reading a review where a luthier was working on a strat with a broken truss, and he said the wood was strong enough to hold the neck at the perfect relief. *Also realize I am using 9's at the time, but I usually have 10's with the same relief problem.

Has anybody experienced such a thing or have any recommendations on what I should do? *I was thinking about trying a heavier guage and maybe tuning sharp to see if I could get some forward pull, but the truss rod seems sketchy to me.

And before you say, "Take it to your local tech," you must understand that I have no local tech that I would trust with firewood.


(Edited by Josh Blagg at 8:13 pm on June 14, 2001)


(Edited by Josh Blagg at 8:18 pm on June 14, 2001)


(Edited by Josh Blagg at 8:21 pm on June 14, 2001)

[Vaibanez]

My first suggestion would be to take out the shim.

My second suggestion would be to buy an Ibanez...:laugh:hehehe, my bad.

J>

[frankfalbo]

Yeah the Ibanez necks are so thin, they bow when you TELL them you are about to put strings on them!=) But seriously, a lot of necks really don't require a lot of truss rod pressure. But usually that is not a testimonial to the strength of the wood, but rather the neck having a tendency to warp into a backbow. in other words, if someone had turned that neck blank *"upside down" before manufacture, it would have a hard time not being forward bowed. In your case, you have a strong neck that is resisting forward bow. *The lack of adjustment to me really means that you have a "do nothing" truss rod. *That's more a factory issue, regarding the type of rod and the install job. If it's a double rod, many times the weld at one end or the other is weak and as you adjust the rod, that joint flexes because it's soft. It bears most of the load and therefore exerts way less pressure to the back bow reaction. In other words, most of your truss rod adjustments are just making the end of the rod wiggle. If the channel is too deep, most of your adjustment isn't even getting the rod to apply pressure to the fretboard. There's a "neutral zone" where even though you feel tension on the nut, its the truss rod putting tension against itself, not against the neck. Do not be afraid to make the rod almost slack, I have 2 guitars that require no tension when its cooler, and just about 1/4 turn when it's warmer.

[RSVampire]

once I buy my Jem7VWH I need to learn all this crap with truss rods, string heights, maintenence on the guitar basiclly.....so it'll last me like 30 years.....

[Josh Blagg]

I don't think taking out the shim will make any difference at all. *The only reason I put in the shim was so I wouldnt have to take the saddles down so low to get the action I like. *Like I said, the shim is small anyway, and the same problem existsed long before I inserted it.

[diek]

Wow,
Frank, as usual, you have good advice! I would think you need a neck jig and some precision straight (small to large) edges to diagnosis it correctly. You could also have a slight dip at the head stock which the truss rod probably wouldn't adjust. *Plus, since you're neck needs to be removed, it would be best to have a surrogate body so you can adjust the neck while strings are attached. A basic fret leveling could correct the problem. Then again, if the neck just won't budge, then a fretboard leveling could be needed also. These are just ideals since I don't have the neck in front of me to truly diagnosis it. How do the frets look? Do they have a good crown or are they worn? Usually only a 1/4-1/2 of a turn will do for a trus rod. At least, if all else fails, you can get a replacement neck from Warmoth for a reasonable price...good luck

[Josh Blagg]

I've been reading about heat straightening of necks with too much backbow. *The neck is basically placed in a jig that clamps the neck into a certain shape with more relief. *They heat the neck to about 140 degrees F, then allow it to cool into its new position. *The thing is, it isn't always a long term effect, depending on the wood.

I am able to get a little more relief than the very small amount that Fender specifies to be normal (.012"), but I think this particular neck requires a bit more. *Perhaps a fret leveling would be more cost efficient since it doesn't seem like the neck is too influenced by string tension. *Dunno if that would be as good of fix as I hope though.