Highway 1 P bass neck- Truss rod problems

[MiniMoose234]

I had finally gotten the action perfect on my main bass. I know how to set it up and to be careful with the truss rod, so it's not that kind of problem. The thing is, with all the weather changes and me keeping it at school for orchestra for a week or so, the neck has bowed quite a bit. I prefer it nearly flat, so I went and tried to adjust the truss rod, and it's maxed out. I tried turning it just a lil, and there was a little snap after just putting in a little bit of force. Now i'm worried I really messed up the neck. Has anyone else had this problem with the Highway 1 necks? I've had a lot of trouble with the truss rod anyway, and figure I may not be the only one.
What can I do to fix this? Is there anyway the neck and truss rod can be 'reset' or something? Or will I have to replace the rod, or worse, the neck?

[Slowgypsy]

Originally Posted by MiniMoose234

I had finally gotten the action perfect on my main bass. I know how to set it up and to be careful with the truss rod, so it's not that kind of problem. The thing is, with all the weather changes and me keeping it at school for orchestra for a week or so, the neck has bowed quite a bit. I prefer it nearly flat, so I went and tried to adjust the truss rod, and it's maxed out. I tried turning it just a lil, and there was a little snap after just putting in a little bit of force. Now i'm worried I really messed up the neck. Has anyone else had this problem with the Highway 1 necks? I've had a lot of trouble with the truss rod anyway, and figure I may not be the only one.
What can I do to fix this? Is there anyway the neck and truss rod can be 'reset' or something? Or will I have to replace the rod, or worse, the neck?

You mention you've had a lot of trouble with the truss rod before. What kind of trouble?

If your neck was in good shape to start with, keeping it at school for a week, even extreme weather changes, should not have made a huge difference to anything.

There is no way I know of to "reset" or "reboot" the neck and/or truss rod. Not really sure what that means anyway

So... here's a starting place. Sight the neck so you know where you are. Loosen the truss rod 1/2 turn. Does the neck bow even more? If it does, that's good. Now, tighten the truss rod that 1/2 turn. The neck should get back to where it was. If all this is working, the truss rod is not snapped or anything like that. If you wish you could tighten the truss rod more, but you can't, you may have to add a spacer to the nut.

[MiniMoose234]

Well it just acts weird. It'll be stable and perfect for months, then all of a sudden completely change and give either a ton of back bow or a ton of relief. Just a nuisance really.
I guess by reset i meant like, taking out the rod or loosening it completely, and.. I'm not sure exactly haha.
It does still work, loosening it does add more relief. How exactly does the spacer trick work? The truss rod is accessed down near the body through a little cutaway, is there anything special I need to do before trying it, or is it exactly the same as if it were accessed at the headstock. I'm not exactly clear on how this works. I know a lot about setting stuff up, till something like this happens >.<

[carlos840]

Take the neck off. (might not be necessary depending on where you truss rod adjustement is!)
Unscrew the truss rod nut all the way, take it out and check that everything is clear and that there is nothing broken in the truss rod hole.
Put the nut back on and count the numbers of turn you can do untill the truss rod is completely tightened, dont force it.
Put the neck back on, restring.
Do your setup keeping in mind how many turns you do, if you reach the bottom before your happy with the neck you ran out of adjustement.
Take the nut out again and add a washer between the nut and the rod.
Start again till your happy.