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Fender Japan 50s Pbass constant truss adjustment?

#21
Bodeeni said:
I live in NYC and the way the weather changes, I am adjusting truss rods a lot. Both tighter and looser. Not continually tighter. Some necks are more sensitive than others. All pretty normal. I leave all my basses strung to pitch.
I have had more than a few necks that developed a kink at the 12th to 15th fret area (Ski Jump) and those will always seem like they need to be tightened more and more. You should be able to see that, sighting down the neck, and there is not much you can do.
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Yeah no ski jump on this one but know what you mean, pretty normal, gradual relief arc more towards the nut
 
#22
J Wilson said:
As a strategy, I would never de-tune a bass or guitar. Doing so may very well introduce relief issues when tuned back to standard tuning.

Necks and wood in a given neck will simply vary, some are just steadier than others, and the newer an instrument is, this can happen more frequently until over time it ultimately acclimates to where it is living.
Some instruments take a while to do this: over the last several years, I've had two new basses I had to chase relief adjustments for a year or more until they finally settled down. On the other hand I've had 80's builds that were virtually immoveable, so age and time usually settle things down.

If it were me, I would remove the strings, adjust the truss rod to dead straight unstrung. Then restring, bring up to pitch, and see where you're at, and do any fine tuning to get exactly where you want to be.
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I think you are right and as I said when I bought the guitar the truss rod had been completely loosened, not sure why or how long it had been like this. I guess two or three tightens from dead scratch to be expected...in anycase not much I can do I guess but keep fine runing it. I have done at least 100 guitar truss adjustments over the years and have a pretty good feel for it. I would never tension past a reasonable point, ie get the adj wrench on the allen key / screwdriver lol. Never broken or stripped a rod yet but seen a few "professionals" do it. I would simply put up with it or sell the guitar. Only bass I had couldn't do anything with was a Fender 80's long horn P bass and such a shame because it was a really beautiful guitar. It simply ran out of adjustment. I ended up putting some little washers on it and got it ok but it looked like the truss rod was just going to keep on bending
 
#24
Pocket Dave said:
It should probably be mentioned - do not tighten the truss rod without loosening the strings first, then retuning.
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While you should relieve the pressure on the nut when making adjustments (to avoid compressing the wood behind the nut), there’s no need to detune - a bit of pressure on the headstock while bracing the body is sufficient, and makes adjustment far less onerous than if you’re detuning and retuning repeatedly.
 
#25
Fun Size Nick said:
While you should relieve the pressure on the nut when making adjustments (to avoid compressing the wood behind the nut), there’s no need to detune - a bit of pressure on the headstock while bracing the body is sufficient, and makes adjustment far less onerous than if you’re detuning and retuning repeatedly.
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Detuning, even a half-step, reduces mechanical stress on the rod and threads when tightening, protecting both from either breaking or stripping.

Applying a bit of pressure to (the back of) the headstock might accomplish the same, though I'd prefer a more controllable detune.
 
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#26
Pocket Dave said:
Detuning, even a half-step, reduces mechanical stress on the rod and threads when tightening, protecting both from either breaking or stripping.

Applying a bit of pressure to (the back of) the headstock might accomplish the same, though I'd prefer a more controllable detune.
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I think you mean the front of the headstock - pushing on the back of the headstock increases the pressure on the nut in the same way as uptuning the strings does.

In either case, what you’re trying to do is straighten the neck slightly so that the rod sticks out a little from the end of its channel, pushing the nut clear of the wood behind it and allowing it to spin freely without any pressure on it.

I’d suggest that the most common result of not doing so is actually compressing the wood behind the nut rather than damaging the rod itself, but whatever the reason, it’s good to be thinking about relieving pressure on the nut - the truss rod is much better at holding the neck in a degree of relief rather than moving it to that relief.

Of course, compressing the wood behind the nut can eventually lead to damage to the rod anyway because compression of the wood eventually results in running out of thread, which if one continues to turn the nut, will twist the rod and/or damage the thread.
 
#27
Fun Size Nick said:
I think you mean the front of the headstock - pushing on the back of the headstock increases the pressure on the nut in the same way as uptuning the strings does.
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Right - I stand corrected.
Fun Size Nick said:
In either case, what you’re trying to do is straighten the neck slightly so that the rod sticks out a little from the end of its channel, pushing the nut clear of the wood behind it and allowing it to spin freely without any pressure on it.

I’d suggest that the most common result of not doing so is actually compressing the wood behind the nut rather than damaging the rod itself, but whatever the reason, it’s good to be thinking about relieving pressure on the nut - the truss rod is much better at holding the neck in a degree of relief rather than moving it to that relief.

Of course, compressing the wood behind the nut can eventually lead to damage to the rod anyway because compression of the wood eventually results in running out of thread, which if one continues to turn the nut, will twist the rod and/or damage the thread.
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Maybe so, though I've seen enough stripped/jammed threads rendering truss rods virtually un-adjustable to be wary. A quick 1/4-turn test both directions has revealed non-working truss rods in a couple of relatively newer used instruments I've walked away from buying. I'm guessing those weren't results of factory defects.
 
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#28
Thanks for all the help and advice. I gave the truss rod another 1/2 turn and improved things, neck practixally straight now but saddles pretty much bottomed out so not as it should be so I decided to try a shim in the heel / pocket of the neck. I normally use a strip of credit card / old bank card for this and works well. Very happy with the result now. Having said all this, the action was never horrible. Probably normal to low for most players. I usually try to achieve a nearly flat neck with around 1.5mm string height low E 12th fret. I know many would disagree but thats what I prefer with flatwounds...very smooth and creamy to play :-) Thanks again
 
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#29
I have no idea what the weather is like where you live, but up here in New England where it’s dry in the winter and humid in the summer I never tweak truss rods. I have a 53 P that hasn’t even had a new setup done for over 20 years. My 62 P has a very skinny neck and that went untouched for 20 years before I got new strings and a new setup about a year ago.

I did have two skinny neck basses that warped in the summer and the truss rod couldn't correct them, one was an AVRI 62 Jazz and the other a Peavey Palaedium. I had a second Palaedium and that neck never moved.
 
#30
Thailand...hot, dry, humid....on top of that in and out of air conditioning. Its not warped though. Other issue is I use flatwounds and this is a particularly thin neck....only 105 guage but it would do a lot better with 95's. Not sure if you know but Flats about 20-30% more tension than round wounds. Lighter guage flats are available here from time to time but main supplier currently out of stock unfortunately (La Bella low tension light guage is what I want)
 

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