Trying to get a little more neck relief so I back off the truss rod nut a hair and let the guitar alone overnight, strung and tuned. Check it the next day and it's got LESS relief than before. Back off another smidge (less than 1/4 turn) and leave it for a day again. Check it the next day and again even LESS relief than before. Not much but definitely less each time. I'm using feeler guages to check. Even checing different points on the neck to see if it's adding relief to some unpredictable area. Seems to be acting normally, only backward. Yes, I am turning the right way .... lefty loosey, counterclockwise looking down the neck. I'm no luthier but I have done this before .... been playing for 3 decades. I've never seen this before. This is a normal truss rod set-up, no reverse thread thing or anything funky. By all rights, this cannot be happening, I think ... Anyone seen this before? What gives? I'm not going crazy here, this is happening as I explained.
Thanks
I would still try turning it the other direction just to see what the results are. Ya never know nowadays.
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You know that scifi movie where the astronauts go off and land back on Earth seemingly too soon but then slowly discover that they've landed on another Earth just on the opposite side of the sun where everything is mirror-image reversed?
Your guitar is from there.
No, seriously: it's almost like the rod is 'upside-down' in there.
Are you experiencing major changes in the weather?
I started with nothing - and I've still got most of it left.
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I wouldn't say major changes. I'm in Florida, we just had a cold front that dropped temps for a couple of days now back to normal for Florida 70's day/50's night. Not much rain at all lately but the humidity was a little lower for those couple of days. Whatcha thinking?
You're having not only pressure changes, but also humidity changes. It's possible, that no matter what you do, the wood is going to do what the climate tells it to.
You may well find that, as the weather settles, so does the neck movement.
I started with nothing - and I've still got most of it left.
Did you know that the word "gullible" is not in any dictionary?
Greybeard's Pages
My Articles & Reviews on GN
Weather effects make sense but I still wouldn't think that taking pressure off the truss rod would have a reverse effect because of the string pull. I'm not doubting the weathers effect on wood because i know it's true. But the neck has been stable with the truss rod at it's original adjustment. If anything, i would think that the neck would have responded to the weather with less relief when the truss rod was tighter, but it remained stable. What are your thoughts on the weather NOT affecting the neck by causing even less relief when the truss rod was tighter?
Thanks
Was the neck ever repaired for any reason?
What sort of guitar is it? If it's a Rick of some sort, that might be the problem.
It's just plain weird. :?
If the back of the neck is finished (lacquer or polish), it's going to be less susceptible to climatic changes than an unfinished fretboard IMHO.
I started with nothing - and I've still got most of it left.
Did you know that the word "gullible" is not in any dictionary?
Greybeard's Pages
My Articles & Reviews on GN
Neck was never repaired, it was a new instrument when I got it. It's a Dean.
The neck is natural/unfinished but does have a light topcoat, probably a lacquer.
As sirN suggested, maybe tweak it the other way to see what happens.
Any luck?
Yeah, let us know what happened since you've got our interest going.
check out my website for good recording/playing info
I checked it last night and it may be acting "right" now. I gave it another 1/8th of a turn counterclockwise and I'll check again later today and hopefully I'll know what's up for sure. I'm trying to figer out what type of truss rod is used in this axe. From looking down the neck into the truss rod chamber it almost looks like it's a double rod set up. It looks like there is a block of metal that can be seen sticking up at the end of the nut and I'm wondering if the nut puts pressure on this block, which may have a second rod welded to it, and then one (or both?) of the rods would bow or relax depending on which way the nut is adjusted. It doesn't look like the nut compresses against a washer up against where the neck hole narrows down like in a typical single rod/nut truss rod set-up. If any of this makes any sense. I think I'd half to remove the nut to get a good look to be sure but I'm going to contact the maker first to see if I can get any info.
I'll keep y'all informed.
Thanks
Yes, please do. This is just sooo weird.
The only thing I found when I googled it was something about a 12-string having to have its rod tweaked every time the strings were changed, and then something about the rod being inside a U shaped aluminum channel of some sort. But that wasn't any particular model, just Dean.
