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72 Fender PBass Truss Rod Question

PapaBearBass

PapaBearBass

Aug 3, 2022
388
902
Maryland Eastern Shore
#1
My 72 Fender PBass has a noticeable bow in the neck. I removed the neck at the base plate and adjusted the truss rod nut near the neck heel as far as I could turn it, returned the neck to the body, and restrung. The neck still had the bow.

The repair guy at my local shop recommended that I remove the nut, and add some washers to “get some more pull” - both of us assuming I had already reached the maximum tightness on the nut. I removed the neck again and started to loosen the nut. At first the nut began to back up and out of the pocket but eventually it kept turning without raising. I used some pliers and realized l could pull the nut and the truss rod itself out. I pulled this out about an inch, kind of like pulling out a tooth and root at the dentist office. The nut wasn’t actually turning off the rod, but instead the nut and the entire rod were turning together.

I used pliers to clamp down on the rod and used a screw driver to finally loosened the nut. After 51 years, the metal was crusty and stuck together. At first the nut could only move along the truss screw about 1/4 inch. Therefore I determined I had NOT originally reached the maximum tightening of the truss nut as I previously had assumed. I cleaned up the truss screw, used some WD40 and got the nut to be able to move smoothly up and down the entire length of the nut.

I reattached the nut about halfway and inserted it back into the pocket. I pushed the nut down into the pocket until I heard a “click” and began tightening the nut. As I tightened I heard a creaking sound. I THINK this sound was truss rod tightening up and straightening the neck. I continued to turn the nut until the end of the truss rod to just about the top of the nut. I reattached the neck and restrung the bass. Again, unfortunately the neck had basically the exact same bow situation as before.

Here are my questions:

First, does the back end of the truss rod attach to some mechanism near the head stock? If so, could someone please explain how that works?

Next, if I was able to pull the truss rod outwards, does that indicate that the truss rod is broken and beyond repair?

Finally, if the truss rod is not broken beyond repair, what are my options for straightening out the neck?

Any helpful advice and insight you could offer would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

IMG_7960.jpeg
 
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#2
You’d probably get more advice on this if you posted in the luthier forum.

I don’t think I’d call the dude you brought it to a repair guy.

That said, there is another captured anchor nut in the channel at the headstock end. You likely unthreaded the truss rod out of that. In the process you may have broken the rod, ruined the threads, or you didn’t get it screwed back in correctly.

My advice would be to stop where you are and find an actual repair person / luthier and bring it to them. At this point, the truss may be salvageable.

Best of luck!
 
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#3
If you feel like it is beyond your expertise to fix this I would suggest as many others here have had positive experiences with warpedneck.com

They are luthiers who only do neck straightening and neck repair. They are more than reasonably priced. They are located in Denton TX. You ship the neck with our without the body. In your case I would recommend shipping it with the body and paying the extra $25.
 
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#4
deff said:
If you feel like it is beyond your expertise to fix this I would suggest as many others here have had positive experiences with warpedneck.com

They are luthiers who only do neck straightening and neck repair. They are more than reasonably priced. They are located in Denton TX. You ship the neck with our without the body. In your case I would recommend shipping it with the body and paying the extra $25.
Click to expand...


Awesome thank you. I’ll definitely check them out. Much appreciated
 
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#6
I’ve made this repair, albeit on a guitar, not a bass. The headstock end of the truss rod is threaded into an anchor and it has unscrewed completely. The problem is that the truss rod needs to be pried up just a little in order to thread it back in.

This is not actually a difficult repair but it is a bit scary. You need to remove a piece of the fingerboard between the first fret and the nut, which will give you access to the anchor so you can screw the rod back in (using red locktite to secure it for good). To remove the piece of fingerboard, you need to remove the first fret and pry the fingerboard up from the fret slot with a sacrificial chisel. The piece of fingerboard will split along the grain (that’s the scary part) and lift up but, because there’s no saw kerf and no material lost, gluing it back in when you’re done is a completely invisible repair. Replace the first fret and you’re done.

If you don’t feel comfortable doing it yourself I wouldn’t blame you but any good repair person should be able to tackle this with ease.
 
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#7
PapaBearBass said:
Finally, if the truss rod is not broken beyond repair, what are my options for straightening out the neck?
Click to expand...
Good advice above.
Personally, given that it's a vintage bass, I'd take it to a qualified luthier.
My buddy had his '71 repaired (after leaving it broken for years...) as per @Lo-E above.
The luthier did an excellent / undetectable job of removing the (rosewood) fingerboard between the nut and 1st fret and repairing the truss rod.
Good Luck!
 
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#8
Just out of curiosity, does the bow occur between the 12th and 14th fret?
I had this happen to a 73' jazz bass and it sometimes referred to as a ski jump.

In my case, the only fix was to straighten the neck using heat and pressure as no truss rod adjustment would have fixed it.
Erik at FIX AN INSTRUMENT'S WARPED NECK made it perfect. The question is, will it stay that way.
 
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#11
Jim C said:
Just out of curiosity, does the bow occur between the 12th and 14th fret?
I had this happen to a 73' jazz bass and it sometimes referred to as a ski jump.

In my case, the only fix was to straighten the neck using heat and pressure as no truss rod adjustment would have fixed it.
Erik at FIX AN INSTRUMENT'S WARPED NECK made it perfect. The question is, will it stay that way.
Click to expand...
No, it bows along the length of the entire neck
 
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#13
blastoff said:
also remember it takes a little time for the neck to “react” to an adjustment. folks generally advise against aggressively cranking the nut, then immediately stringing it up and expecting a dramatic difference. especially on a vintage neck- a few quarter turns at a time, massage the neck a little, talk sweetly to it, let it rest a bit….
Click to expand...

ok that’s a good idea
 
#14
The neck will need to be assessed by a competent repair tech. It sounds like it will need straightening as well as a look at the tr. I hope you spun the tr loose from its anchor. If so, warpedneck.com can straighten it after your tech applies some permanent locktite and reinserts the rod in the anchor. This is best case. I've seen a lot of weird stuff with older fender necks. Let's hope this is an easy fix.
 
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#17
bobdabilder said:
The neck will need to be assessed by a competent repair tech. It sounds like it will need straightening as well as a look at the tr. I hope you spun the tr loose from its anchor. If so, warpedneck.com can straighten it after your tech applies some permanent locktite and reinserts the rod in the anchor. This is best case. I've seen a lot of weird stuff with older fender necks. Let's hope this is an easy fix.
Click to expand...
Ok so is the back end a “screw in” joint or is it a welded joint? Is it possible to reinsert the back end into the locking mechanism?
 
#18
Hey PapaBearBass! I have done this repair on my 1971 Precision bass. I actually bought a neck wthout a truss roc and I made one to fit the captured nut under the fingerboard. It is definitely a screw in joint for the truss rod The captured nut is a small rectangular nut that has 8-32 threads and it is under the first fret. It is hard to screw in the rod to the nut because the rod must slightly bend to act as a single action truss rod. You need to see the rod go into the nut-ergo the removed finger board.
Its a big job and if you can find someone to do it for $75, I would say have them do it.
 
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