Excellent video. I admire your advice on being in the right state mind before attempting this kind of adjustment. As a younger man, I learnt the hard way that impatience is the enemy when it comes to any work on a guitar!
Excellent video! I adjusted my truss rod using your technique and after getting it too tight the first time, I backed it off a bit and now it’s just about perfect. It’s easy to do once you have done it.
Best video on the subject, thanks! I'm amazed Fender is still making guitars that way since it's just obtrusive and has no relationship with the sound.
I appreciate your style. I have a partscaster with a Warmoth neck that has the old style heel adjustment, that got kind of buzzy. Looking forward to making it better with your super chill instructions. Thanks!
Thanks for making this calm and to-the-point video, without bling and pop-ups and drama! I was just about to remove the pickguard on my Tele to see if I could access the rod when I stumbled across your video. Definitely going with your method instead. 🌸👍
The suggestions here are great for sure. //If you want a little measuring trick I use (rather than going by feel, which is good as well no doubt), you may look into buying a quilting ruler. My girlfriend has one, as she knits. Her's is I believe 18" (I believer there are at least two lengths). This is the length of the Fender neck. Hold that where you like; I prefer between the low E and A strings. Then you can use a feeler gauge (or a business card) to measure the relief. This seemed more comfortable for me versus capo, fret the fret near the neck joint, and depth gauge. What works for some might not work for you. Take care and enjoy doing your setups, everyone.
Great video. Very thorough. My Fender Road Worn strat has one of these necks. The last time I took the pick guard off with the pickups to adjust it. This should help a lot.
Sometimes there is indeed enough room to adjust by removing the pickguard, but often you'd still need to lift the neck up to expose the adjusting nut properly.
For the pick guards that don’t have pickups attached there is no need to remove the neck. For people who are sketchy about removing the neck. Remove the 5 small screws on the pick guard and it will slide under the loosened strings. There will be plenty of room for a tool. I have been doing it this way for 40+ years.
Thank you! Yes, this is of course possible whenever there's room for a tool after removing the pickguard. This doesn't work always (sometimes not enough room for a tool), but with many of them it does, indeed. :)
Thank you Sinan. Yeah it's not the most fun thing to do, especially when you know how much easier it can be with basically any other type of adjustment. :) But, as said, that's the tradition, and have to live with it with a LOT of guitars brought into this world. :)))
excellent instructions...one thing please; this particular electric guitar - the Telecaster - has the output jack in a position that is not the best when resting the guitar on a surface as you do here to tune...this could inadvertently damage both the cable jack and/or the output jack...maybe better to use a strap when tuning, or simply sit the guitar on your knee...great video.
Since many of the people watching this video are beginners, it seems that a simpler expression is needed. Wouldn't straight and bow be easier to understand than tight and loose(5:50)? Does Tight stretch the neck or bend it?
Thanks for the feedback! The terms can be confusing, indeed. The tighter (clockwise) you turn the adjusting nut, the more straight (or up-bowed if you tighter the nut way too much) the neck becomes. And in the same way, when loosening (counterclockwise) you adjust the nut, the more (back)bowed the neck will become. If you take the time to watch the video through completely, the visual demonstrations in combination with my explanations should make the process pretty clear. I hope, anyways! :D
I'm not worried about wrecking the truss rod or something since I've been doing it for a long time to some of my guitars. I'm just worried about stripping the screw holes in the neck each time I have to do this setup.
Absolutely great video. I have a question about a vintage Yamaha sg7, it’s very unusual looking and I need to adjust my truss rod, the action is quite high on the high frets.
I have no experience of this particular guitar. If the truss rod access is at the headstock end, maybe this video is helpful for you: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-eKBwCP2t4PM.html
The truss rod is accessed threw the the neck backk plate jusst like your tele, except I doont need to take the neck offf and there is 4 holes in the rod. Would I by chance Be able to email you? Thank you for the reply aswelll. Best Anthony B
the truss rod on my 57 strat can only turn about half a turn then it gets too hard to turn and counterclockwise it gets totally easy to turn, any ideas? relief is about .75 mm
Thanks. Two scenarios that come to mind. Either the truss rod is jammed (could be due to rush, etc), or it's tightened "all the way" - no more threading left in the rod, in other words. In both scenarios, my recommendation would be that you take the guitar to an experienced professional.
Thanks! I'm so used to it! :D The origin of using such a long screwdriver come from the reach easier to adjust whammy springs on the back of the body, and also the truss rod. Another thing is torque - with a long screwdriver you need less force to tighten (or open) things. But I agree - in some contexts it may look hilarious. :D
Love my EOB Strat to death but the vintage truss rod stops it from being perfect. I don’t adjust it often as my guitar stays nearly the same through the whole year but when it’s time to adjust I dread it, not because it’s difficult or I’m anxious it just takes way too much time for such a simple thing.
Yup this is how so many of us feel about the vintage Fender style truss rod. And.. if the neck of the guitar doesn't move much - as in your case it sounds like - there's nothing wrong either to just live with the slight variation. I mean, not adjusting to perfect relief won't do any harm to the guitar. So, as long as the guitar inspires you, it's all good!
11th or 12th (or 13th) with this rather primitive way of checking the relief gives approximately the same results. In my work I check the relief in multiple ways - for example, I always check so that I press the string down to the 1st and 12th fret and check the relief around 5-7th frets. In the same way I check between the 12th and last fret … and so on. This way I can learn if the truss rod is effective evenly across the fretboard or not - in other words, is the curve of the relief symmetrical or not. With problematic necks that have fret buzz even if the frets are in good condition and leveled, the reason is sometimes the truss rod not functioning optimally. Is there a fix in these cases? Sometimes the only solution is to adjust a bit differently to find the best compromise.
Thanks. To tighten, turn the not clockwise, as mentioned in the video. Doesn't matter on which end of the neck the nut is located. Maybe a helpful metaphor: Opening (loosening) a cork of a bottle = counterclockwise. Closing (tightening) the cork = clockwise. Right? :) Counterclockwise loosens the truss rod, clockwise tightens it.
Hi. Yes I check at different locations even more so than what shows on these videos. Perhaps one day I’ll find time to make a dedicated video focusing on that. You can learn a lot about your guitar neck when checking the relief at multiple locations. Not all necks curve the same way.. As with so many things, the deeper you dig the more complex it gets.