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Incredibly Bowed Neck

#24
gln1955 said:
We've been though this many times. No need to baby a neck with a quarter turn, wait a day stuff.
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If you're really experienced, yes you might be able to know what you can get away with. The OP is a complete newbie at this. He should definitely go slow. On all the necks I have, none have more than 3/4 turn of the truss rod past snug. Yes, they're good solid necks, but.. when we're counseling newbies on such things, we should be careful to give some idea of what a lot of adjustment is. Otherwise, they might try half a dozen turns or something.
 
#25
micguy said:
If you're really experienced, yes you might be able to know what you can get away with. The OP is a complete newbie at this. He should definitely go slow. On all the necks I have, none have more than 3/4 turn of the truss rod past snug. Yes, they're good solid necks, but.. when we're counseling newbies on such things, we should be careful to give some idea of what a lot of adjustment is. Otherwise, they might try half a dozen turns or something.
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I think in general you don't need much turning to adjust a neck, but you won't hurt anything turning it too much. You will just have to loosen it back.
 
#26
James Collins said:
I think in general you don't need much turning to adjust a neck, but you won't hurt anything turning it too much. You will just have to loosen it back.
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If you turn it a little bit too much, sure, but once you break the truss rod, or compress the wood around the truss rod too much, backing it off won't "undo" what you've done. A newbie with no sense of how much is too much should be encouraged to sneak up on things. I'm sticking with that stance.
 
#27
Here is the way I keep it straight in my head. The truss rod helps the wood fight back against the pull of the strings. If you tighten the rod, it pulls harder back against the string pull. As with most screws or bolts, right tightens left loosens, it doesn't matter which end of the neck the adjustment is in.
If the adjustment feels loose. the rod is probably not helping much. Look down the neck from the peghead. Generally, it should be VERY SLIGHTLY bowed away from the strings. I like mine as straight as I can get it without fret buzz. GO SLOW, a half turn at most at a time and let it acclimate a while. If that doesn't do it after a couple of days, then you need professional help.
 
#29
I am pretty sure that trying to get in a hurry is a leading cause of stripped truss rods.
It will help a lot to loosen the strings before adjusting, so that the string tension isn't
fighting against the truss rod tension.
How fast the neck is going to move will depend on how hard it is.
An old, hard, dry neck can still move, but it might crack if you try to rush it.
A newer, more supple neck might be OK with doing all the adjustment at once.
If in doubt, take your time.
If you hear it snap, crackle or pop, stop there.
It isn't a bowl of Rice Crispys.

If it were mine, I'd loosen the strings and see where the neck goes with no tension.
If it goes completely straight, crank in a little tension until it is slightly bowed
the other way.
Again, if in doubt do the 1/8 to 1/4 turn and wait thing.
It's better to waste time than to damage the neck.
I think the general rule of thumb is to never go more than one full turn in a day.
Once you have it where you think it might work, retune it and see where it is.
Maybe you need more (later) or maybe you need less.
It could take a couple of days to get it right.
Don't be surprised if when you do get it where you want it, it moves a little over night.
It might not be stable right away.
 
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#31
I've never been afraid to do a few turns. And ya loosening the strings as well as bending the neck back as you tighten the truss rod is the standard move. If it feels like you can't turn it with medium or light pressure you may need to look into adding a spacer behind the truss rod nut.
If you had a vintage instrument going slower would probably be relevant.
 
#32
gln1955 said:
We've been though this many times. No need to baby a neck with a quarter turn, wait a day stuff.
Click to expand...

It totally depends on the bass whether you adjust & wait or adjust & play. I have 11 electric basses. You can adjust the truss rod on nine of them as much or as little as you want and that adjustment is good for weeks or months, depending on weather or string gauge changes. If you tighten a little too much, you can backs off a bit & the neck responds.

Two of the basses require guesstimate adjustments because they don't move immediately after being adjusted in either direction. A 3/8 or 1/2 turn of the truss rod today may seem perfect, even if I play the bass for 1/2 hour or so after adjustment, but 99% of the time, the following day requires a slight correction in the opposite direction. It's pretty consistent for both basses. If the TR needs adjustment, I'll turn it some, but if it still feels like it needs more, I've learned not to adjust any more. I just wait a day to see where it's at and make minor corrections. It took a while to learn this for each of these two basses; one responds well to adjustment, but keeps on moving in the direction it was adjusted & generally requires some minor correction the following day. The other doesn't respond well at all to adjustment, which had me making major adjustments to get it playing well, but then making major corrections the next day or two. I've had it playing perfectly one day and the strings laying on the frets the next day.

One is a '93 Gibson Tbird, and the other is a late 90's Peavey G-Bass with a graphite neck.
 
#34
I would consider stripping the trussrod nut, snapping the rod, or popping the fingerboard due to overzealous tightening a "disaster", and all featured on a regular basis on TB and other forums. A pro Luthier has the experience and knowledge to know how far they can tighten a rod safely on a given bass, the OP does not. Slow and easy costs nothing but a little time, and lessens the chance of damage, a complete no brainer for an amateur like me.
 
#36
Gorn said:
Is physically moving the neck with your hands as part of the process actually a recommended thing to do?
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... for adjustments on my headstock adjust truss rod basses, I straddle the body of the bass between my feet, my left knee against the back of neck (seated, so just above where the neck meets the body), left hand applies gentle pressure to the top of the headstock (against the knee), right hand turns the truss rod ...

... for severe adjustments (excessive forward bow), I have used a 'fixture' that I made to clamp the neck into position, and then tighten the truss rod ..

Some will say it is not needed, some say it is .. do what you are most comfortable with, this is what I am most comfortable with ... I don't rely on the truss rod to move the neck by itself, I will help it move, then the truss rod to hold the neck ... I also find it slightly reduces the pressure on the truss rod nut prior to turning ..

JMHO ... as always
 
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#38
J Wilson said:
Seagoats, think of it this way: Loosening the truss rod will raise the strings, tightening the truss rod will lower them. There's more involved to action than this, but that's the way to think of it.

Here's a good basic adjustment method from the terrific fretless player Gary Willis, maybe this will help (these steps apply to fretted bass as well):

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And as others above have said, and GW stresses in this tutorial: Once you feel the truss rod nut begin to snug up, adjust it only a 1/4 of a turn or less at a time and give the wood time to 'settle in' to the new tension.
Click to expand...

Think about it in the way it actually works: Tightening the truss rod will straighten a neck with forward bow, loosening will make it bow more. There is no reason to think about it raising or lowering the strings, because that simply isn't true.
 

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