Body side truss access

[taphappy]

Was dragging around my fender jazz special body for a while after her neck snapped. Went to Matt Umanov in NYC a couple years ago, they installed a new fretless neck - when I picked it up, I discovered to my dismay that the new neck had truss access on the body side rather than at the headstock.

It's the old large phillips style. Do I have any options as far as routing access? Or am I stuck pulling my neck off every time I need to make an adjustment?

[Dirk Diggler]

That would require quite a large rout, or at minimum a 90 degree angle wrench.
Good luck,
Dirk

[timmus]

I have several basses with that style truss rod...it is a pain to be sure. It may be too late but I'm wondering if you can discuss the situation with your luthier that installed this neck and see if he might be amenable to swapping that neck for one that has the access hole on the top.

You may just have to suck it up and keep it that way. I do my own set ups and I find these get far fewer trussrod tweaks than my basses that have the access on the top due to the PITA factor. It's definitely a pain to have to remove the neck (or at the very least remove the pick guard) every time I need to do an adjustment.

[taphappy]

Nah, not in NYC anymore.

Large rout, meaning...too large? Trying to hunt down a 90 degree allen type phillips wrench, not having any luck.

[Hookus]

You can find an angles screwdriver at literally ANY hardware store. Look for them in a package of assorted screwdriver sizes. They are commonly used for attaching doorknobs.
]
For the rout, you can rout in about 1-1.5 inches, and make a simple cover from any piece of wood or pickguard material, then all you need is about four pickguard screws.

[taphappy]

Nice, okay. Thanks!

[pilotjones]

When you look for the right angle screwdriver in the hardware store, ask for an offset screwdriver.