Is there anything I total beginner when it comes to truss-rods can do? I don't know what happened but I go to play my strat and suddenly the action is so low I cannot play anything on the first 10 frets without buzz. I look at the action and its way down, nearly touching at fret 1.
About 2 months ago I had the local repair guy do a complete setup on the rig and at that time is was perfect. I hadn't noticed anything going wrong until now.
Temperature changes have occurred bigtime here. We have been enduring freezing weather so I am hoping that might explain it.
Anyway, can/should I take a shot at fixing it so I can play through the holiday weekend or am I screwed?
Please advise,
You can fix that easily. You simply need to LOOSEN the truss rod SLIGHTLY.
When a truss rod is too tight it stretches the neck out straight. It forces the headstock downward. So exaggerated, your neck looks like a frown. :cry: This will often cause fret buzz, especially in frets 1-5.
When you loosen the truss rod, the string tension will pull the headstock up. Now your neck is shaped like a smile. :D This is called relief.
So, if your guitar was set up properly, and you have not raised or lowered the saddles, then yes, probably you need to slightly loosen the truss rod.
MAKE SMALL ADJUSTMENTS. MAYBE 1/4 TURN AT A TIME.
To adjust your truss rod:
1)Loosen all strings until they are slack.
2)Turn truss rod counter-clockwise in a small adjustment, 1/4 turn at most.
3)Tune strings back to correct pitch.
4)Allow some time, at least 2 or 3 hours for the strings to pull the headstock up.
5)If after waiting, the neck needs further adjustment, loosen strings again, make another minor adjustment to the truss rod, tune back up, and give a little time for the adjustment to settle in.
Loosen truss rod= Turn counter-clockwise
Tighten truss rod= Turn clockwise
Never overtighten a truss rod. If it gets very tight, STOP. You can break it.
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
Just to add a little more, there are several factors that can influence your string height or action.
1) Yes, temperature has an effect on the neck. It can cause the wood to expand or contract.
2) Changing guitar strings- If you replace your strings with a lighter gauge, this can cause the action to be lower. And heavier gauge strings can raise the action.
There are two reasons for this. Lighter gauge strings have less tension, so the neck can stretch out more. But also, lighter strings tend to sit lower in the nut and saddle. So, lighter strings often lower the action.
Heavier strings are just the opposite. They have more tension, pulling the headstock up creating relief. And, they also tend to sit higher in the nut and saddle.
3) Adjusting the springs on a whammy or tremelo type bridge. If you loosen the springs on a Strat type guitar, the bridge will be pulled forward by string tension. This can cause the action to be lowered. Tightening the springs pulls the bridge back, often raising the action.
The rule on floating bridges is that the bridge should float even or parallel to the body when the strings are tuned to pitch.
Hope this wasn't information overload. :D
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
Not overload at all. THanks much for the input. I think I will have a few shots of "liquid courage" and try it....
I figure worse comes to worse, I just need to take it back for another setup.
By the way, I didn't change strings in between this change in action. But average temps in my area have dropped almost 40 degrees (we have had some sub-freeze nights) and the guitar stays in the garage most of the time. Maybe I should bring it back inside and see if it changes.
Thanks again
If your garage isn't heated, I wouldn't store the guitar there. It will go through a lot of temperature variations, often within the same day, and any setup will mean squat. If it's an accoustic, all the contraction and expansion could lead the top to crack. Rule of thumb: Keep, store, and carry your guitar under conditions you would be comfortable (as best possible).
slothrob is right on.
My band has had several gigs lately, we have also had extremely cold weather. I try to put my guitars in the car last, after it's warmed up. Even still, they are usually exposed to cold for at least half and hour. First thing I do when I arrive at the club is take the guitars out of the case and put them on a stand so they can adjust to the warmer indoor temperatures. I also check the tuning maybe every 10 minutes. It always changes as the guitar warms up. I have found it takes at least an hour for the guitar to warm up and settle down. Even still, holding the guitar with your hands, and up against your body warms it more. I often check the tuning after the first couple of songs and find out it has changed again. But after that they get warmed up and become very stable, and stay in tune the rest of the night.
Yeah, don't leave that guitar out there in the cold. 8)
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
Understood. On the cold thing, believe it or not, I knew that. But the true cold snuck up on me. I realize now (esp. after bringing my guitar in for the evening) that cold wreaks more havoc to action and tuning then heat.
See I live in Northern California in the central valley and we are really known for our heat. I mean HOT. Only Phoenix and Bagdhad can rival us. We are trained to be carefull of that heat. The guitars are sheltered from that dry blast. From day 1 I have learned that keeping guitars out in the heat here call kill them. 125-130 degrees in a garage with 0-10% humidity can make a guitar "un-recoverable".
Cold, on the other hand, sneaks up on us. Normally its just rainy and windy during the winter. It (the guitar) never felt that cold so I took for granted that it wasn't chilly.
Well after a night comfortable night indoors (since my first post), the action has come back up a bit. (not much, but I noticed)
Lesson Learned: 1) Keep action a bit higher for those cold nights on the beach or camping and 2) Keep it indoors
One Note: I noticed that cold effects the tuning on my guitars more then heat. Go figga'
Thanks again, very helpfull board. Not flamers at all either... Great!
Yeah, Wes and I are certainly coming from a New England perspective. There may be better places to store a guitar in other places in the world, but here it is usually best to keep it in the house where you are comfortable. Of couse, if your house is 65°F at best, when you start to play the strings will warm up and need to be retuned, then, later, the body must finally warm up and it begins to settle down. My friends, who play under hot stage lights in poorly heated bars, go crazy in winter trying to keep in tune from one song to the next until about the middle of a set.
Mind you, my drafty old house is far from comfortable in the winter. It is dry and drafty and my guitars need to be adjusted once winter sets in and then again in the spring when humidity returns. In the summer, it is hot and as humid as it can get without actually raining. Solid body guitars seem to just need a bit of a neck tweak to accomodate the seasons, but it's brutal on acoustic guitars. The indoor weather extremes have nearly killed my 35 year old Gibson dreadnaught.
