Fender Truss Rod Tutorial...is this a joke?

[TheIndieKid]

Since I've bought a Vintera Mustang, I've been looking for the proper, reccomended way to go about doing a truss rod adjustment. Take strings off completely? Leave them on and loosen them? Completely take off the neck? You get the idea.

I felt compelled to watch the Fender Official video since...well, it's Fender's own video with their personal guidelines. Now I won't spoil the video, but just go to 4:00, and wait for it...

Hopefully, you'll know what I'm talking about. I'm NOT in a million years doing it in that way. I find it funny that it's a video aimed at beginners, where he uses a method with which I suspect you could damage your bass. I cringed. So did the whole comment section apparently.

 

[FunkHead]

When in doubt take it to a respected and trusted pro.

 

[TheIndieKid]

When in doubt take it to a respected and trusted pro.

You're right, but I like to be able to do my own setups, so I don't have a lighter wallet

 

[bolophonic]

What on earth was that?!?

 

[TheIndieKid]

What on earth was that?!?

The sound your bass makes when it gets sent to God's waiting room, I think.

 

[bolophonic]

The sound your bass makes when it gets sent to God's waiting room, I think.

I mean.... I’ve never been known to treat my basses like they are overly fragile or anything, but the neck joint is the one place where I’m going to at least pretend to show a little care.

 

[TheIndieKid]

I mean.... I’ve never been known to treat my basses like they are overly fragile or anything, but the neck joint is the one place where I’m going to at least pretend to show a little care.

Did you see the neck bend?

 

[Kitsapbass]

Holy ****.

Fender should be ashamed for putting this together.

 

[TheIndieKid]

Holy ****.

Fender should be ashamed for putting this together.

Hey, do you loosen your strings? "No, I like to wrangle it". Steady on, cowboy.

 

[Dirk Diggler]

I don't get it?

What was so heinous about that?

How else would you suggest doing it?

Perfectly normal adjustment from the company that actually makes the bass.

Dirk

 

[turf3]

Seems very strange, but I don't have experience with a large number of Fender basses.

Why wouldn't you loosen the strings, give the truss rod a quarter turn up at the head stock, retune, see what you've got, repeat till done? No matter how you do it, you won't be able to tell for sure how much you've changed the neck relief till you put everything back to normal and tune up anyway. It doesn't seem to me that repeatedly loosening the neck joint can be a good idea.

 

[TheIndieKid]

I don't get it?

What was so heinous about that?

How else would you suggest doing it?

Perfectly normal adjustment from the company that actually makes the bass.

Dirk

It's not the actual adjustment. It's the way he leaned on the neck so it popped out the pocket. The crack was terrifying. Normally it just slips right out if you loosen the screws. The neck even bends quite a lot.

 

[turf3]

Seems very strange, but I don't have experience with a large number of Fender basses.

Why wouldn't you loosen the strings, give the truss rod a quarter turn up at the head stock, retune, see what you've got, repeat till done? No matter how you do it, you won't be able to tell for sure how much you've changed the neck relief till you put everything back to normal and tune up anyway. It doesn't seem to me that repeatedly loosening the neck joint can be a good idea.

OK, now I see that the adjustment is down at the bottom. Can you get access to it by removing the pickguard? Whole thing looks really dubious to me.

 

[MVE]

Yeah....
I would recommend de-tuning prior to loosening neck screws.

It just seems like a little ‘dab of common sense. Lol

 

[Chrisk-K]

The Fender vintage truss rod access is a joke anyway.

 

[Goatrope]

It's not the actual adjustment. It's the way he leaned on the neck so it popped out the pocket. The crack was terrifying. Normally it just slips right out if you loosen the screws. The neck even bends quite a lot.

Indeed. It was a bit of a surprise that he didn’t first loosen the strings, then the “wrangling” of the neck up out of the pocket was cringe-worthy.

I don’t know. Fender basses are pretty tough. I’m more gentle with mine, but maybe the “Pros” man-handle them without any ill effects.

At the least, I know folks who worry about cracking the finish around the neck if you don’t pull it out of the pocket carefully. I’d think a tight pocket would end up with cracks around it using the method in the video. Cosmetic damage, maybe?

Still, I’ll stick to my method, thanks.

 

[dkelley]

This is madness. What you're hearing is the edges of the screws scraping the inside of the holes in the neck.

 

[JoeWPgh]

I would expect to bend the neck screws if I did that. And NOT loosen the strings??? WHY???

 

[LowRick]

just bend it a bit, over the knee... ask a benchpushing friend to aid when there's no effect.

The alternative would involve a wood fire and a flower sprayer.

J/K. i'm glad my adjustments can be done without doing anyhing more than find out where i left the bloody allen keys.

 

[Johnny StingRay]

When I had my 76 fretless P Bass back in the day, my guitar tech shaped out the pickguard so the truss rod could be accessed without removing the neck or taking off the pickguard. Easy solution.
The cracking noise and bended neck on the video gave me the "heebee jeebees" like when you watch videos of skateboarders smashing and crashing on "Ridiculousness"!!