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G&L is gone and my L-2000 is a Canoe Paddle!

T

twcamper

Apr 6, 2026
7
5
#1
Hello all!
I've been enjoying this 2018 USA L-2000 (Reverb link) for a while now, but the truss rod nut snapped off and I'm afraid the whole bass is a total loss. Please note that the nut is not stripped: the interior of the hex nut is not warn at all and the 4mm allen key fits snuggly.
PXL_20260404_215330779.jpg
The nut just spins (a broken weld, I guess?) and you can hear it rattle when you pluck hard.

I'm posting to share my tale of woe, and also on the off chance somebody might know something I don't. Here's why I think I'm screwed at this point:

  1. I understand the nut is welded on, so the whole rod needs to be pulled out to be fixed or replaced.
  2. And so the fingerboard needs to be heated/steamed off (and refinished at the end since the poly on the maple won't like the heat? and refretted too?)
  3. The truss rod itself could be a unique G&L design for all I know, and so no part would even be available.
  4. "A replacement neck" would seem to be cheaper, but...
  5. G&L never sold USA/CLF necks, because each one was a custom fit (which must be why it's such a player with no dead spots at all). I understand the only fix for this in the before-time was to ship your whole bass to G&L in Cali and they'd redo the fingerboard or just fit you a whole new neck.
If money was no object, I might have my luthiers saw me up some fresh rosewood and go from there, but in reality I can't sink what would turn out to be 70 or 80% of what I paid for it just to keep it going. The balance and weight and neck-feel of the thing are fantastic, as well as the astounding versatility in passive mode, but it's not really necessary given the AmPro II P I have ( not mention the old Corvette and the other Parts-o-saurus . . . )

Ah, life!! I guess I'll start looking for deals on a canoe!
 
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#4
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#10
ahbass2500 said:
Adding another option (noting it may not be at a price point OP is after) Drake Custom Bass has made several G&L necks (saw them on YouTube), including scale length changes on at least one of them.
Click to expand...
This! I have a Drake 33" conversion neck on a G&L and it's great, better than stock. He can do 34" too. Drake makes the best feeling necks I've ever played.
 
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#12
This is common on G&Ls with two way truss rods. It was a change made to cheap things out, not because the two way rods are physically superior. There are countless online reports of these issues, as well as the rods running out of adjustment range. And those are only the cases that have been reported in online discussion forums.

Rod needs to be routed out and replaced (preferably with a standard compression truss rod).

Or you need to source a used neck – but be careful. A G&L neck was usually not removed without a decent reason.

Or the best option: Buy a replacement neck from Musikraft. They are much better built than G&L necks, and you can get way more options. Just be sure to give them the heel measurements from your neck, and let them know it's a 6-bolt era neck (they have a slightly longer heel, so there can be intonation problems if you order a neck with the old heel length).

In any case, the bass is devalued by 30–40 percent...so don't expect full value if you ever re-sell.

G&L absolutely did not "custom fit" every neck to every pocket. I don't know where this crap comes from. You can, in almost all cases, plop in a neck from the same era. If that was not the case, they could not have existed as a factory. I have neck swapped God knows how many times, on G&Ls of all eras.
 
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#13
jallenbass said:
In my experience, when a truss rod breaks, it's from the threads stripping and not an actual break of the rod. That's repairable.
Click to expand...

This is absolutely a break. There are no "threads" as you are thinking about. This is a two way truss rod. The nut is welded on to the upper rod. The weld broke, or else the nut twisted off behind the weld. On two way truss rods, each rod is significantly less strong than the single rod on a regular compression truss rod. Add in the fact that there's a weld, and they are prone to this sort of thing.

It's not something that can be repaired without removing the rod, or at least carving out a fairly large access panel to re-weld the nut....just to end up with the same inherently flawed truss rod design. At that point, you are better off neatly routing a skunk stripe channel to remove the stock rod, then converting to a standard compression style truss rod. This is a stronger and more repairable design.

If it was my bass, I would do this conversion, as I am able to do it myself. For someone else's bass, who can't do the work themself, I would advise investing the cost of this repair into a new Musikraft neck instead. They're better built than any BBE era G&L neck, and you get far more options to choose from.
 
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#15
jallenbass said:
In my experience, when a truss rod breaks, it's from the threads stripping and not an actual break of the rod. That's repairable.
Click to expand...
Not always my l-1000 has the rod snap right past the nut..these are dual action rods so the nut doesnt spin around the rod like a single action. Having the fingerboard removed and trussrod replaced by local luthier right now.
 
#16
2F/2F said:
This is absolutely a break. There are no "threads" as you are thinking about. This is a two way truss rod. The nut is welded on to the upper rod. The weld broke, or else the nut twisted off behind the weld. On two way truss rods, each rod is significantly less strong than the single rod on a regular compression truss rod. Add in the fact that there's a weld, and they are prone to this sort of thing.

It's not something that can be repaired without removing the rod, or at least carving out a fairly large access panel to re-weld the nut....just to end up with the same inherently flawed truss rod design. At that point, you are better off neatly routing a skunk stripe channel to remove the stock rod, then converting to a standard compression style truss rod. This is a stronger and more repairable design.

If it was my bass, I would do this conversion, as I am able to do it myself. For someone else's bass, who can't do the work themself, I would advise investing the cost of this repair into a new Musikraft neck instead. They're better built than any BBE era G&L neck, and you get far more options to choose from.
Click to expand...

Had this happen to one of my g&ls recently. Local luthier is removing fretboard and installing single action rod.
 
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#17
I didn't click the link in the OP until just now. This is a CLF research model and may be worth repairing, if you can find a tech who is up to the task.
 
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#19
2F/2F said:
This is common on G&Ls with two way truss rods. It was a change made to cheap things out, not because the two way rods are physically superior. There are countless online reports of these issues, as well as the rods running out of adjustment range. And those are only the cases that have been reported in online discussion forums.

Rod needs to be routed out and replaced (preferably with a standard compression truss rod).

Or you need to source a used neck – but be careful. A G&L neck was usually not removed without a decent reason.

Or the best option: Buy a replacement neck from Musikraft. They are much better built than G&L necks, and you can get way more options. Just be sure to give them the heel measurements from your neck, and let them know it's a 6-bolt era neck (they have a slightly longer heel, so there can be intonation problems if you order a neck with the old heel length).

In any case, the bass is devalued by 30–40 percent...so don't expect full value if you ever re-sell.

G&L absolutely did not "custom fit" every neck to every pocket. I don't know where this crap comes from. You can, in almost all cases, plop in a neck from the same era. If that was not the case, they could not have existed as a factory. I have neck swapped God knows how many times, on G&Ls of all eras.
Click to expand...
Oh, thank you! I'll try to get hold of a human at Musikraft. The configuration form on their site left me thinking they couldn't accommodate my instrument.
I don't know where this crap comes from.
Click to expand...
I'm sorry I don't either! Some post or other on some site or other and I'm ashamed of myself for passing it around!
tim
 
#20
twcamper said:
Oh, thank you! I'll try to get hold of a human at Musikraft. The configuration form on their site left me thinking they couldn't accommodate my instrument.

I'm sorry I don't either! Some post or other on some site or other and I'm ashamed of myself for passing it around!
tim
Click to expand...
There's nothing to be "ashamed" about. There's just a lot of false info out there regarding...well, everything. G&Ls seem to be particularly prone to it, because there aren't a lot of people out there who know a whole ton about them.

Part of this stems from false marketing claims the company itself made over the years. In this case, it's that G&L would not sell you a loose replacement neck or warranty neck. They required you to ship your entire instrument in, increasing the cost of the replacement neck dramatically. They insisted on selling a neck replacement as a "service" rather than as a part.

They claimed that this was so they could custom fit each neck to each neck pocket. This made people think that it was standard procedure that G&L hand cut each neck to fit each neck pocket. In reality, it was because they changed specs so often and handled transitions so sloppily, that they had to double confirm they were making the right variant of neck for you...and they also had problems with Bozos incorrectly installing necks, and hassling them for replacements or setup complaints after a neck replacement gone wrong.

If you look at examples of short-heel (pre-1998) G&L basses that the company has made replacement necks for, you can clearly see that they usually took no care whatsoever to match the original heel length, except on special high profile examples done for official G&L endorsees. The average Shmoe sending in a short-heeled neck just got a modern long heel version slapped on, and the saddles moved way forward to intonate it. This creates poor setup geometry (shallow break angles and bridge saddles riding at the ends of their intonation screws), not to mention effectively repositioning the pickups.
 
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