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Dropping washers over a bullet truss rod adjustable at the headstock

GretschWretch

GretschWretch

Supporting Member
Dec 27, 2013
12,451
25,121
East Central Alabama
#1
I've been experimenting (as usual), currently with scale length(s). I've got a new Chinese 32" scale neck paired with a mid-nineties Fender road-worn body, and so far the results are promising. One problem though: the neck is displaying some forward bow with the strings at pitch. I already have cranked the truss nut down as far as it will go with the strings slacked, but still the bow returns with the strings at pitch.

The truss nut is of the bullet type which adjusts at the headstock, and as I type this I can barely see the nut when I sight down the access hole. I would like to remove the nut and drop some washers over the rod and then replace the nut. Only thing is, the rod is so counter-sunk in the neck I cannot even see it. How do I drop washers when I cannot even see the target? How do I know if they dropped in right on target or if they are off to one side (tilted) or not even seated at all? I cannot see my targeted work area.

If adding washers is not a viable option the only alternative I see is to slack the strings and loosen the truss rod nut, and then clamp the neck into a viscious back-bow under a heat lamp and leave it set for a few days. If that fails I will just have to go to the lightest, lowest-tension strings I can find.

Can anyone suggest any other approaches?
 
#4
Matt Liebenau said:
If it’s a single action truss rod and the nut comes off you could try a dab of grease or Vaseline on the washers. That should stick them to the truss rod nut well enough to get it back down into the abyss and, hopefully, threaded on the truss rod.
Click to expand...

Here's a Rube Goldberg that works in cramped quarters. I'm also of the sneaking suspicion that we MAY need to widen the access a tad. This is a skewer with a short run of shrink-wrap affixed...I flared the business-end with needle-nose so it will just slip over the rod. Slide a couple properly-sized washers down the "fire pole" and you're back in business.

Chopstick.jpeg

Riis
 
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#7
96tbird said:
This. Use CA glue. It will probably let go once you’re applying pressure, but it will just be thin flakes of CA that won’t harm anything.
Click to expand...
I have CA glued washers in this manner in the past with some success, but in attempting to follow @Matt Liebenau 's suggestion above last night, I encountered something I have never before experienced: the blessed nut won't come off the rod. Being mindful of "righty-tighty lefty- loosey" I hex keyed the nut all the way from maximum right to as far to the left as it would take to remove the nut. No dice; even at maximum left the nut remained firmly fixed on the rod.

An even larger puzzler is that while the nut goes through a "loose zone" in the midst of it right-left pilgrimage, it soon in both directions becomes so tight that it is clear it has reached the maximum of its travel in that direction. A rod that is both left and right thread at the same time? How can this be?

I finally got the neck, unstrung, to dead straight and will see what can be done with that. I have some super light-gauge Las Bella flats (.039 G) that I will lead to try to keep forward bow out of the neck.

Thanks to all for their suggestions.
 
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#8
GretschWretch said:
I have CA glued washers in this manner in the past with some success, but in attempting to follow @Matt Liebenau 's suggestion above last night, I encountered something I have never before experienced: the blessed nut won't come off the rod. Being mindful of "righty-tighty lefty- loosey" I hex keyed the nut all the way from maximum right to as far to the left as it would take to remove the nut. No dice; even at maximum left the nut remained firmly fixed on the rod.

An even larger puzzler is that while the nut goes through a "loose zone" in the midst of it right-left pilgrimage, it soon in both directions becomes so tight that it is clear it has reached the maximum of its travel in that direction. A rod that is both left and right thread at the same time? How can this be?

I finally got the neck, unstrung, to dead straight and will see what can be done with that. I have some super light-gauge Las Bella flats (.039 G) that I will lead to try to keep forward bow out of the neck.

Thanks to all for their suggestions.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a dual-acting rod given your description....nut welded to end of rod, neutral zone. Bigger question: did the relief change to any extent when "swinging" fully CW > fully CCW?

Riis
 
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#9
Welp, if you ever get the nut removed....... I use these every now-and-then. It's been a couple years since I bought these, but they were fairly inexpensive. I have a boatload of these, so if anyone is interested, I can send 1 or 2 or 3. Or...... just buy them from AluminumSpacers.com. I cannot, for the life of me, remember how I found these, lol. I have also thinned them a bit, by just rubbing them on sandpaper.
IMG_4504.JPG
 
#11
Like Riis said, it sounds like a double action truss rod and the nut is permanently attached. I’d guess that when the nut was in its fully “loosened” position there was an excess of relief? That’s what a double acting rod does, it can force relief into a neck. The only thing I can think of to try is clamp the neck into a backbow and tighten the truss rod and see where it ends up. If that doesn’t work it may be heat press time.
 
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