truss rod nut only goes so far

[bassman040]

I've got here a '83 Squier Bullet Bass and I'm trying to get it up and running again. I've had to play with the superbly bowed neck on this bass the past few years. I've been trying to adjust the truss rod nut and after tightening it all the way, the relief measured at the 8th fret leaves a gap of 1.2mm while the recommended relief is 0.3mm. I read the sticky post by hambone which was helpful to a certain extent.

Taken from this link:
http://www.fender.com/support/setup/basssetup.php


Note: In either case, if you meet excessive resistance when adjusting the truss rod, your instrument needs constant adjustment, adjusting the truss rod has no effect on the neck, or you're simply not comfortable making this type of adjustment yourself, take your instrument to your local Authorized Fender Service Center.

I guess my situation is the part with the bold words. What I'd like to know is, what do the guys at the service centers do to get the truss rod nut to go further? I'm pretty sure there's more thread left in the nut. Thanks!

[62bass]

You can get more adjustment range by taking off the truss rod nut and putting 2 or 3 small washers over the threaded rod, then re-instal the nut. This has done the trick for me many times with old basses. Be careful when you put the nut back on that you don't cross thread it.

[Relic]

Ditto what 62 bass wrote, that perfectly ressurected a warped 51 reissue neck for me. I put some washers in, snugged the nut, gave it about a half turn and in 15 mins, the action was perfect.

If that fails, then there is one last-ditch measure that you can take but it's a little more complicated. You would take the neck off , loosen the nut completely, clamp it into straightness or even a slight backbow, then snug the nut nice and tight and reisntall.