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Teach me o wise ones.
- Thread starter ichbin
- Start date
I learned the most by trial and error honestly. The key part is being patient with yourself, taking notes, and having a solid tuner on hand.
With that being said, when I learned, there was no YouTube. I'd have learned WAY more in a much shorter time had I been able to use such a resource.
Just watch, learn, and apply friend.
May the Force be with you.
With that being said, when I learned, there was no YouTube. I'd have learned WAY more in a much shorter time had I been able to use such a resource.
Just watch, learn, and apply friend.
May the Force be with you.
Means2nEnd
Supporting Member
You won't get something like this from a big box store bass company from the like of ________ fill in that blank as you wish. Jerzy Drozd from Spain one of the best small shop somewhat boutique hand made builders freely gives the most comprehensive well written FREE ebooks available. Incredible basses by the way I have on my gas list for sure.
Just register and it's free that's it! How awesome is this?
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Just register and it's free that's it! How awesome is this?
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Was eliminated from the sticky at the top of the forum years ago for inaccuracy, spurious assertions, and convoluted methodology.
Two words: Dan Erlewine.
He literally wrote the book(s) on guitar repair. Available on Amazon new and used.
Plenty of people disagree with this - among them, some of the most experienced technical minds here. Two full turns might be a bit much, but it's OK to go ahead and turn the nut until you get the adjustment needed.
He literally wrote the book(s) on guitar repair. Available on Amazon new and used.
Plenty of people disagree with this - among them, some of the most experienced technical minds here. Two full turns might be a bit much, but it's OK to go ahead and turn the nut until you get the adjustment needed.
Hopkins
Commercial User
Dan is probably the very best in the business. His youtube videos he does for stewmac are for the most part very informative. I have learned plenty of time saving tricks from them. Some videos are made to try and sell over priced unnecessary stewmac gadgets, but I can live with that.
There were two instances that I have had to turn a truss rod in excess of two full turns. One was a bass with an extreme back bow and the bridge saddles adjusted to their full height to compensate. Someone had tightened the rod until the nut ran out of threads, to get relief set I had to back the rod off about 3 1/2 turns, I was surprised there was no damage done to that neck. The other time was a guy who never had his bass set up at all, and the rod was totally slacked, and he used heavy gauge strings. It took just about three full turns to get that neck set as well. There are rare cases where this happens.
The truss is popping out the back of the neck - see my thread seeking help for what to do for pics... it ain't pretty :/ Hopkins, it's no myth. Something tells me you don't get the dryness in Texas I do in Canada. I was speaking from experience, not some belief in myth.
If the neck has a problem then it has a problem, but that has nothing to do with any supposed "waiting period" when adjusting the rod.
Turn it until the neck is where you want it, get on with your day.
Turn it until the neck is where you want it, get on with your day.
Hopkins
Commercial User
This has nothing to do with over tightening the truss rod, and every thing to do with the glue joint failing on your skunk stripe. It still would have happened either way
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Just sayin'... it happened when I twisted the truss nut about two full turns, not all by itself. Other basses never had an issue when I adjusted, but they never needed as much of an adjustment (or even close to as much). I only add it to this thread to say don't disregard all the setup guides that Do tell you to wait, because I didn't and I regret it. YMMV.
Professional repair techs do not wait for results. They create results.
They ain't bakin' cookies.
If a set up guide recommends a waiting period when adjusting a truss rod it was not written by a professional guitar repairman.
In the unlikely case that the guide was written by a professional repair tech, that person was probably afraid of being sued by a ham-fisted amateur who knows nothing of tool usage or logical repair procedures.
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Hopkins
Commercial User
Again, your truss rod did not cause the skunk stripe to break loose, a bad glue joint did. Walter and myself are professional techs, we have both adjusted more truss rods on more instruments than we can remember. If you feel the need to wait after every minimal tweak when doing a setup, by all means go ahead. But don't go around telling people it is necessary when not one professional tech does it that way.
I'm not saying you don't know your stuff, especially in the humidity you're used to working in. I wasn't sure if I'd over-tightened it because it felt great relief-wise; I now believe I tightened too quickly.
In the summer I see/feel/hear changes within about 5-10 minutes, but in the winter (4 different basses, all needing very different amounts of adjustment) I have had to wait up to an hour for adjustments to 'complete'. More than once in the winter I've had it just right, only to have it start buzzing at the first/second fret an hour later. The Ibanez above was perfect a few minutes after I adjusted to where I wanted it... but later that edge started to rise up. I understand it's the glue, and correlation is not causation, but there was no problem before, and it wasn't nearly as bad once I loosened the truss (however now there's too much relief, hence why I don't think it's too tight), so I'm sure it's the truss putting the pressure on the glue. Might not have gone that way if the air wasn't so dry..? I used to finish furniture for a job - wood literally splits open in the winter here. Necks not in a humidity-controlled room or who have lived without at least a case humidifier shrink until the frets are poking out the sides - no joke. Ever try to bend an old, dry branch compared to a fresh one with leaves? I can't see a neck being too different.
Anyway, back to the OP... if you've never done it before, can a little patience hurt? I'm not sure if the air where you is gets as dry as here, and take with a grain of salt, but I don't see why waiting a bit could be a bad thing, especially if you aren't a pro on the clock with a ton lined up to do.
In the summer I see/feel/hear changes within about 5-10 minutes, but in the winter (4 different basses, all needing very different amounts of adjustment) I have had to wait up to an hour for adjustments to 'complete'. More than once in the winter I've had it just right, only to have it start buzzing at the first/second fret an hour later. The Ibanez above was perfect a few minutes after I adjusted to where I wanted it... but later that edge started to rise up. I understand it's the glue, and correlation is not causation, but there was no problem before, and it wasn't nearly as bad once I loosened the truss (however now there's too much relief, hence why I don't think it's too tight), so I'm sure it's the truss putting the pressure on the glue. Might not have gone that way if the air wasn't so dry..? I used to finish furniture for a job - wood literally splits open in the winter here. Necks not in a humidity-controlled room or who have lived without at least a case humidifier shrink until the frets are poking out the sides - no joke. Ever try to bend an old, dry branch compared to a fresh one with leaves? I can't see a neck being too different.
Anyway, back to the OP... if you've never done it before, can a little patience hurt? I'm not sure if the air where you is gets as dry as here, and take with a grain of salt, but I don't see why waiting a bit could be a bad thing, especially if you aren't a pro on the clock with a ton lined up to do.
Hopkins
Commercial User
If you are comparing an old dry stick to a green one with leaves, you would absolutely be better off with the old dry one. The glue joint may very well have failed because the two different woods expanded and contracted at different rates, but again it was going to happen regardless of how fast you adjusted your relief, because the glue joint failed.
YES!
Can't agree with this enough! This book alone has saved my keester more times than I could count. Even though the current edition was apparently edited by a drunken walrus... Occasional nonsensical edits notwithstanding, Dan's presentation of the hows and whys is pretty much holy writ for anyone ready to tinker. And, (bonus points!) my copy, ordered from Stew-Mac, came autographed by Dan-O! "From our shop to yours," he writ... we won't tell him I gots no "shop," OK?
Not to mention- if you're ever talking to a tech about working on your axe, and they opine ill of Dan and/or Stew-Mac- take your business elsewhere! Boy oh boy did I learn that the hard (and expensive!) way.
i suspect we have the cause and effect reversed here, and the problem that caused it to need so much adjustment was the same problem that caused the breakout; how fast you adjusted the rod is a red herring.
