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

[MDBass]

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.

That’s pretty funny.

Not detuning the strings, at least just enough to take the tension off, makes the whole thing needlessly difficult.

 

[juancaminos]

Of course he's had thousands of other peoples instruments to practice on.

 

[Snibborwocky]

I want to laugh and cry at the same time watching that... WOW. *craaaaaaaaaaacccccccckkkk*

 

[The Bass Clef]

That’s a wonderful way to crack and chip the finish all around the neck pocket, bend the neck screws, and strip the mounting holes... not to mention, it was ignorant of him to not even check for a neck shim (which lots of Fender come with from the factory) and make sure if there is one, that you know where it was placed and that it didn’t move, because that’ll change the entire setup if a shim moves even a little. If you can’t access the truss rod where it lies without marring up the body or pickguard, then it’s best is to take the strings off - not just loosen them, take em off on the headstock side. Then flip it over and unscrew the neck completely and carefully wiggle the neck and let it drop completely out of the pocket, and check for a shim. Then make your truss adjustment, put the neck back on and string it back up. This guy should “wrangle” himself a new job that doesn’t require tools.

 

[BOOG]

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.

NBD (no big deal)
meh
If my bass needs adjustment, I adjust. Nobody else is going to get where I want it.

 

[Tommyc]

Ha ha ha what did you expect? It's not his bass. Ever ask a contractor who comes into your house how he arrives at his price? "Time and materials" is the only answer I've ever gotten. Time comes first. When I work on taking a link out of my wife's watch bracelet, I'm not not looking at the clock, same when I'm building a new wheel set for the bike. Same with my guns, car, basses, guitars etc. Pros don't make money if they quote a job that takes 30 hours and it runs over to 40 for some un-foreseen reason. I only wish i could do everything and arrive at an Emersonian state of self-reliant grace.

 

[bass.slinger]

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.

Ouch - that physically hurt watching him push down on the neck and body and hearing that pop as the neck moved up.

 

[La Faro]

That’s pretty funny.

Not detuning the strings, at least just enough to take the tension off, makes the whole thing needlessly difficult.

And then saying at the end that it will need retuning. If you are going to tune at the end, then not detuning at the start is just plain lazy.

 

[Kipp Harrington]

And then saying at the end that it will need retuning. If you are going to tune at the end, then not detuning at the start is just plain lazy.

This was a simpletin-like video for Fender to put their name on. It seems as though the guy couldn't care less about what may happen to the bass... sending the wrong message.

 

[okcrum]

I think the video had exactly the desired effect.

No one seems to have realized that someone who does a complete setup in a couple of minutes (on guitar after guitar off the production line or a newly arrived shipment at the local shop) is going to use the fastest technique possible that doesn't make the instrument unsellable.

That necks are elastic and fresh finishes make that crack when they come loose seems to be a revelation here. You can stand on a neck supported at both ends to show how strong and elastic they are. The horror!

 

[Gefilter1001]

I have been doing it like this for years.

 

[Rayjay]

That cracking sound is just a nice, tight neck pocket, the way it should be. I get that from a proper bass even when I don't have tension on the strings. It's probably also in part the sound of the sticky finishes on the neck and body peeling away from each other.

I visited Sadowsky many years ago and one of the guys demonstrated to us what a proper neck pocket should look like - he put a neck on a body, with out screws, and waved it around. The neck and the body did not separate. It took some force to get them together and to get them back apart.

 

[Daniel Piper]

I didnt know what to expect at all after reading OP.

I actually shuddered.

 

[fhm555]

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.

That’s the way i’ve pretty much seen heel adjusted Fenders done all my life. I’ve seen a tech grab a neck at the body and nut and pull it up against his knee after loosening the truss rod. The crack it made was much louder than the one on that vid.

 

[Mili]

 

[WillyW]

I would have detuned a little but other than that seems just fine to me.

I prefer heel adjust necks, by a long shot.

It’s a Fender, not grammas teacup.

 

[2F/2F]

Nothing wrong with the way he did it. It's just unnecessary to remove the neck. Use a small screwdriver on half of the adjustment nut, not a large one spanning the nut. Some of Fender's own manuals from the '60s state this. I've never had to remove a neck to adjust a heel-adjusting truss rod; at most, I've had to take off a pickguard. But that said, sometimes it's quicker than taking off a pickguard.

 

[eb0248]

Maybe he moonlights as a chiropractor

 

[Watchootognbout]

How do I adjust my non-Fender truss rods?
With the strings under tension.
With this....here!
Easy!
Done!

 

[Picton]

I’m on the “no biggie, just the sound of a tight neck pocket” side of this fence.

I’d have loosened the strings, but he’s right: you don’t have to do that. When the joint is tight enough to make that sound, loosening the strings would have done nothing to mitigate the cracking noise.

No harm, no foul. It says “Fender” on the headstock, so it’s fine.