tighening the truss rod on a cheap acoustic

Everyone states that you shouldn't tighten the truss rod to lower the action on an acoustic.

I have never said that. I have always been willing to experiment with my guitars to make them more playable. I have tightened the truss rod to bring the action down on guitars. I have put shims under the neck.....

Now saying that, not everything always works. I have had to go back and take those shims out. I have had to go buy a new saddle for an acoustic because I sanded it down too far. But I have never ruined a guitar by experimenting, and most of the time the guitar played much better when I was finished. Plus, I personally think it is fun to do this type of thing. I am also a cheapo and would never pay someone to setup my guitar when I could do it myself.

On an acoustic you only have a few options to bring the action down. You can file the nut deeper (the last thing I would do), sand the saddle down (done this many times) or tighten the truss rod. The truss rod is really the best option, because if it doesn't work you can always go back and put it in it's original position.

Anyway, here's how to do it.

1) Loosen all strings
2) Take note of the original position of the truss rod screw. You might even want to mark it somehow.
3) To tighten the truss rod, turn it clockwise. Go in very small increments, maybe 1/8 turn at a time.
4) Tune the guitar back up to pitch and play it awhile. Let the neck have a little time to settle. Usually after an hour or so the neck is going to settle out.

The action should come down a little. If you want more, loosen all strings again and make another slight adjustment. Tune back up and play awhile again.

Just keep going until you like the results. If you go too far and start to get fret buzz, loosen the strings and back the truss rod off about 1/8 turn at a time. Retune and try it again.

You will not break the neck if you overtighten the truss rod, but you can break the truss rod. To prevent this, always loosen the strings to where they are slack to make adjustments. But you do not need to take them off. Just make them pretty loose.

If the truss rod gets real tight and feels like it doesn't want to turn anymore STOP! a truss rod feels firm when making an adjustment, but it turns easily.

So, just take your time, go slow and take little steps at a time. It is not really difficult at all, and once you setup your own guitar you will never trust anyone else to do it for you again.

Let us know how it turns out.

Wes

Adjusting the truss rod has one effect on the neck and one only - it bends it (or allows the tension of the strings to bend it). That is what it is designed to do, as well as help counteract the tension of steel strings.

By adjusting the truss rod, you are changing the curve of the neck. Tightening the neck, to get a lower action, will result in a convex neck, i.e. the 12th fret will be nearly as high or as high as the string cuts in the nut. The guitar becomes increasingly difficult to play, below the 12th fret. Even having the neck dead straight, will show every little imperfection in fret height and create a lot of buzzing, when fretting.

Remember that a string, when vibrating, is moving from side-to-side, it's greatest movement being in the middle, i.e. at the 12th fret. Your neck has to have either sufficient height or sufficient curve to accomodate the vibration.