| turning the truss rod screw head clockwise puts a concave bow into the neck. you're tightening the truss rod, shortening the lenth of the neck and causing the middle of the neck to come down from the strings. turning the trussrod counterclockwise brings relief to the neck........loosens the neck.......lengthens it as it begins to bow upward in a convex manner like the bow you shoot arrows with. be careful. never turn a trussrod more than 1/4 of a turn in any direction. a 1/4 turn is alot. you need to make adjustments slowly over days. turn it a 1/4; let it sit a couple of days; then, see if to bring a little more relief into the neck. if you overadjust the neck, you'll find yourself having to repeat the process all over again in just a week or so, and that's a real pain in the ass when you have to take off the pickguard, which you probably do if yours is like my '51 reissue. also, any auto parts store has what are called offset screwdrivers. they're shaped kind of like a block "S" and have a phillips at one end and a flat at the other. they usually come packaged in a pair of two different sizes. they're the best fender trussrod tool ever. another trick. don't be afraid to take off the pickguard, and if possible w/o it being seen, route out a short tunnel to give better access to the trussrod. if the pickguard covers it, who cares? take a drill and use a small diameter bit to eat out chunks in tiny increments. start at least a half inch from the end of the fingerboard and work toward the fingerboard, but never ever ever get the drill bit close to the end of the fingerboard. one slip and you nick the end of the fingerboard and that can be seen from a mile away. after you've drilled 7 or 8 smaller holes. change bits and begin to do some major routing, breaking out the chunks in between the small holes. go slow. when finished, you'll have a channel to get to the trussrod screw head w/ease using an offset screwdriver. works like a charm and makes trussrod adjustment a breeze. | 
