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Truss Rod Adjustments Suck

#81
Templar said:
Personally I don't really care where, or which type of adjuster is on a bass...as long as it works the way it's supposed to work. And that's the rub...they don't always work right.

Here's a little angst saver that Ibanez uses...no more fiddly little screws to mess with. Clever, works great too.

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Yep mine has one of those too, love not having to unscrew it every time I need to make an adjustment
 
#82
Truss rod adjustments don't HAVE to suck. As many have stated, either having the right tool OR having a wheel adjustment really brings down the difficulty level dramatically. And when a neck is properly relieved, it can actually make the difference in "I hate this instrument" to "this plays so amazing!"
As a builder myself, I spent quite a bit of time thinking about the aspect of this in bass design.

To me, headstock adjustment of a truss rod is way WORSE than at the base of the neck. Assuming you don't have or can't use a T-handle hex (MIM Fender or Warwick, for examples), what you have is the strings in your way, in a place where there is little to no flexibility (between the nut and tuning posts). If you have to use an L-shaped wrench, you end up with little ability to turn the adjuster and if you press into the strings, they will get kinked or scratched if tuned to tension. And if you can't turn it there, you need to remove or loosen strings, which then throws off the ease to make said neck adjustment.
This is dumb.

Heel adjustment is an area where the strings are easily moved out of your way, even under full tension. If you have access to that area with ease, when turning the rod, you can spread the strings apart with no problem.
This is, of course assuming you HAVE ACCESS TO THE ADJUSTER.

Fender's design of the "you need to take the neck off" adjustment is an argument that I will fight tooth and nail about as evidence that Leo, in fact, did NOT get it right on the first try. That design is AWFUL. Basses don't have it as bad as guitars, where the pickguard and pickups frequently need removal to hit that adjustment.
That style of neck heel adjustment is BAD. Yeah, the truss works, but anything requiring a neck to be removed, adjustment made, restrung, checked, possibly repeated? BAD.

I've done more than a few fixes to that on basses that still use that terrible design. Routing an access channel is very easy (comparatively) and works well. But of course, making that modification to vintage instruments is not good because the value then drops like a stone, even if the function is far better.

So yeah, I completely agree with folks that the heel wheel adjuster and a dual action truss rod is probably the best situation you can have. No special tools required, easily adjusted, very good design.
Second place would be an adjuster that can easily be accessed with a proper tool. A slot, a groove, or even if covered by a removable plate, just being able to get at the area without removing string tension is a good move.
Beyond that, it's all just more complicated than it ever had to be.

AND REMEMBER: When adjusting a truss rod, particularly to add more tension and create a backbow, YOU NEED TO MANUALLY BEND THE NECK AND MAKE THE ADJUSTMENT UNDER LESS TENSION.
In other words, you shouldn't be be turning the adjuster and hoping it bows the neck. You should clamp the bass in place, use your own forces to bow the neck, then turn the adjuster so it can stay in a new place. This helps prevent rounding out of the adjusters, tools, creates less torque on the rod, and is just the better way to do it. I frequently see people not doing that (and am guilty of it on occasion), and it's not ideal.

That's the way I see it. YMMV.
 
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#85
Jack Deth said:
Yes on all 3 accounts. It’s adjusted now, I just don’t understand why the design has to make it so difficult. 99% of the time the hex key gets stuck, that’s the icing on that cake. At any rate, it’s like having to remove the wheels of your car to air up the tires because the engineers put the valve stems in some absurd location.
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excellent analogy and I fully agree, but the best part about it is that it's like they made it so taking off the wheels doesn't actually help, because even then the valve stems are one inch from a metal flange, so you need this special short bend tool to get in there, and you can only turn it about 15 degrees each turn before it hits the rim, so you have to keep taking it off, finding a way to wedge it on where it just barely fits, and move it another 15 degrees.
 
#87
No problems with my '71 Jazz
IMG_20200427_114241350.jpg
 
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#93
pbassnut said:
I have about the same number of basses (all Fender and FrankenFender Ps with a few Js thown in). Most of their necks are pretty darn stable and rarely, if ever, need adjustment. However, I do have a coupla two or three that sometimes gain some fingerboard relief during the dry Winter months and can use some adjustment. However, I've found over the years that they typically return to being perfect on their own by the time Spring rolls around so I've taken to leaving them alone and just playing my other basses while they're "out of sorts" and returning to playing them once they are their old selves again.
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I live in a dry climate ... Colorado ... and I run humidifiers ... but the spring and fall seasonal changes mean the basses need to be tweaked ... usually just the bridge, but many times the truss rods as well
 
#96
funk generator said:
The only times I consider trading my geddy are when I have to make that awful neck adjustment.
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rojo412 said:
Fender's design of the "you need to take the neck off" adjustment is an argument that I will fight tooth and nail about as evidence that Leo, in fact, did NOT get it right on the first try. That design is AWFUL. Basses don't have it as bad as guitars, where the pickguard and pickups frequently need removal to hit that adjustment.
That style of neck heel adjustment is BAD. Yeah, the truss works, but anything requiring a neck to be removed, adjustment made, restrung, checked, possibly repeated? BAD.
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Right here, earlier in the thread. Does not need to be removed.

rojo412 said:
AND REMEMBER: When adjusting a truss rod, particularly to add more tension and create a backbow, YOU NEED TO MANUALLY BEND THE NECK AND MAKE THE ADJUSTMENT UNDER LESS TENSION.
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Completely agree, no matter what kind of nut is used or which end. Makes this whole process far easier and much less likely to result in a stripped nut. Making the nut do the work is asking a lot of what is often quite a small hex socket or slot.
 

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