Truss Rod issue.

[guitician]

I would just leave the truss rod loose and tune up a step, or two, for a day, or two to see if the neck moves any.
Maple is less stable than Mahogany and may back bow if the maker wasn't careful about the grains tendencies to warp with humidity/temperature. Well seasoned wood makes for better necks.

[Sea Chief]

Thats a good idea- I guess I could even put on some old strings and tune up a good few steps even & leave for a few days.

Nice one- its still a peach of a gtr even with a few niggles. Cheers Chief

[guitician]

Keep the tension even across the neck, twisting should be avoided,(i.e. a lot more bass tension than treble), which is easy from the thicker strings.

[John_H]

(When I say 30 yrs experience Im not suggesting at all Ive got high-end luthier skills; Im just saying squarely that Ive enough experience to set up a guitar very well. I can do so with any gtr, in a couple of hours never a problem. This one tho the 1st Ive ever known, seems to just be unable to get right/ unending niggles.. so I have to conclude now that without factory-machines to test spacings of A to B etc etc.. its just not going to be got right. Id honestly even surmise that a luthier himself would accept its got the best of him, then just completely refret & re-nut the b'stard).

Tell us again about all of your experience. I'm sure we can all look forward to this going to 100 posts or more to only be unresolved. SMH

[Steve A.]

Question: For me "too little neck relief" always meant that some of the strings were fretting out when I was bending them. However I have since learned that the problem could also be caused by high frets, in which case minor leveling with a fret rocker can cure the problem.

Assuming that is not the problem Dan Erlewine has mentioned "neck chiropractics" to help out truss rod adjustments by carefully but firmly bending the neck in direction you want it to go. (You might try bending it over your knee, making sure not to stress a glued-in neck joint!)

NOTE (entirely unrelated to this discussion): Since January I have run across six 2014-5 cheap imports with a slack area of at least a half-turn in which there is absolutely no resistance when turning truss rod nut. I brought an LTD EC-10 back thinking it was defective because the truss rod needed to be loosened just a little bit but it was not happening when I turned wrench CCW. The guitar I exchanged it for had the same problem except that I wanted to tighten the truss but reached the slack area turning the wrench CW. So I kept turning the wrench maybe a 1/2 turn and then met some resistance. "Ah ha! Some strangeness noticed here!"

Having seen this on 6 brand new imports I suspect that the Chinese factories have come up with an inexpensive double-action truss rod. (The EC-10 sells on sale for $99.99 so it must cost little more than a regular truss rod.) The PRS SE guitars have a double-action truss rod but there is no slack or dead area between tightening and loosening.

And yes when I figured out that the first EC-10 was NOT defective I rushed back to GC to get it before someone else snagged it. (I had it set up so it played better than 90% of the guitars on the sales floor.)

Steve Ahola

[Chuck H]

Question: For me "too little neck relief" always meant that some of the strings were fretting out when I was bending them. However I have since learned that the problem could also be caused by high frets, in which case minor leveling with a fret rocker can cure the problem.

Assuming that is not the problem Dan Erlewine has mentioned "neck chiropractics" to help out truss rod adjustments by carefully but firmly bending the neck in direction you want it to go. (You might try bending it over your knee, making sure not to stress a glued-in neck joint!)

NOTE (entirely unrelated to this discussion): Since January I have run across six 2014-5 cheap imports with a slack area of at least a half-turn in which there is absolutely no resistance when turning truss rod nut. I brought an LTD EC-10 back thinking it was defective because the truss rod needed to be loosened just a little bit but it was not happening when I turned wrench CCW. The guitar I exchanged it for had the same problem except that I wanted to tighten the truss but reached the slack area turning the wrench CW. So I kept turning the wrench maybe a 1/2 turn and then met some resistance. "Ah ha! Some strangeness noticed here!"

Having seen this on 6 brand new imports I suspect that the Chinese factories have come up with an inexpensive double-action truss rod. (The EC-10 sells on sale for $99.99 so it must cost little more than a regular truss rod.) The PRS SE guitars have a double-action truss rod but there is no slack or dead area between tightening and loosening.

And yes when I figured out that the first EC-10 was NOT defective I rushed back to GC to get it before someone else snagged it. (I had it set up so it played better than 90% of the guitars on the sales floor.)

Steve Ahola

I might expect that from China actually. Who's making the import Fenders now? Isn't it Mexico? I wouldn't expect that from Mexico. But absolutely no harm in checking.

[Steve A.]

A double-action truss rod is a definite improvement over a regular one. If that is what is on the LTD EC-10 I am amazed that they are using one on a guitar that sells on sale for $99.99

Double-action truss rods force the neck in either direction (Fig. 3). I’ve used this type of truss rod in several of my guitars and I really like them. You tighten the double-action rod to force a back-bow or loosen it to force a fore-bow. The key difference between a single- and double-action rod is the latter has the ability to create fore-bow. With a double-action rod, you can actually force the neck into either a concave or convex shape.

Time for a Neck Adjustment?

Hmmmm... I just checked StewMac and they are selling the low-profile dual action truss used in the ESP guitars for $11.54. (I bet that someone came up with a lower priced knock-off which is being used in the $100 imports.) The review from Feb 18th makes me suspect that the writer backed off the truss rod nut until he didn't feel any resistance and assumed that it was pointless to continue turning it CCW.

as a new product from stewmac, I thought to myself it was an "special" truss rod design, but got nothing different from a regular truss rod from other suppliers, maybe a little more sturdy, just maybe.

Low-profile 2-way Truss Rod | stewmac.com

Steve Ahola

P.S. I believe that the Fender-branded imports are still made in Mexico while the Squiers are made in Asia. I used to sneer at Squiers but some of them these days are really nice.

[Sea Chief]

Question: For me "too little neck relief" always meant that some of the strings were fretting out when I was bending them. However I have since learned that the problem could also be caused by high frets, in which case minor leveling with a fret rocker can cure the problem.

Well this might be one reason/ or rather one way I could get it 'perfect'. I did notice asap that the fret up to the 12th ish were uniformly reasonably (not excessively) worn down, the tops flattened, worst 5-10th like it wasowned by a bending solo hero what with all the hair already (& spots). Above 12th frets ok, and this ~sort of coincides with the (slight only thankfully- its still v. playable even so) subdued &/or buzzing of strings up here.

Maybe I could get it sorted by just filing the fret tops down a little.. but taking all above ~12th down a fraction might be a tricky job.

[Sea Chief]

I might expect that from China actually. Who's making the import Fenders now? Isn't it Mexico? I wouldn't expect that from Mexico. But absolutely no harm in checking.

Just need to clarify, this one is a 2014 japan made telecaster.

(Actually I have a china squier which can be tweaked just fine either way fwiw even if the TR bolt end is a bit squiffy).

[Sea Chief]

Tell us again about all of your experience. I'm sure we can all look forward to this going to 100 posts or more to only be unresolved. SMH

716 posts of nowt but troll replies.. what a fkn loser.

[Steve A.]

Well this might be one reason/ or rather one way I could get it 'perfect'. I did notice asap that the fret up to the 12th ish were uniformly reasonably (not excessively) worn down, the tops flattened, worst 5-10th like it was owned by a bending solo hero what with all the hair already (& spots). Above 12th frets ok, and this ~sort of coincides with the (slight only thankfully- its still v. playable even so) subdued &/or buzzing of strings up here.

Maybe I could get it sorted by just filing the fret tops down a little.. but taking all above ~12th down a fraction might be a tricky job.

Yikes! In learning how to level and recrown frets on my own guitars the past two years I have a dozen or so in my "to be refretted" pile.

Putting in new frets was a piece of cake for me but leveling and recrowning the new frets was something I screwed up every time so I figured I better learn how to do that right before putting in any more frets. (I am happy to report that I finally learned how to do that and am almost done building the luthier workbench in my garage so that I can start refretting those suckers!)

I would suggest that you have a luthier or top-notch guitar tech evaluate your guitar. Off the top of my head I would guess that they would charge about $100 to level and recrown your guitar (assuming that is all it needs.) You would spend more than that just buying the tools necessary* to do the work. If he would allow you to observe the work being done (a big if!) it would be a no-brainer... especially if you have several guitars that you want to service and maintain yourself.

I have 40+ guitars that I have collected over the years, mostly $300-400 imports that I bought figuring that if I was going to pay $300 for a refret job I might as well put the money towards a new guitar. While having so many guitars can be a real pain just housing and feeding them I now consider it to be a blessing because they have given me the opportunity to learn the luthiery arts without worrying about screwing up a customer's guitar.

If you still want to do the work yourself I could set you up with some of the DIY tools I made, like levels with fresh sandpaper of various grits, etc. PM me if you are interested.

Good luck!

Steve Ahola

[John_H]

716 posts of nowt but troll replies.. what a fkn loser.

You certainly enrich this place with your contributions.

If Id known this amp just doesnt f**king bother to/ or break up only just out of reach @ 7 or so instead, like all my other f**king amps dont either.. then Id not have built it or tried this attenuator idea. Christ I f**king hate f**king amps!!!!

I on the other hand love amps. I love the sound of them. The looks of them. The smell of them. Big and small.

A double-action truss rod is a definite improvement over a regular one. If that is what is on the LTD EC-10 I am amazed that they are using one on a guitar that sells on sale for $99.99

Steve, I have to disagree. Double action truss rods allow you to adjust backwards on them, but do you really want a guitar that needs to be adjusted backwards? I've had the occasion to adjust on a couple that needed backwards compensation. The result was always a really dead sounding guitar that didn't stay tuned very well. I build a lot of necks, and I'll never use one. My favorite is good old fashioned traditional truss rods. They're way more solid than any "box" type unit.

[Sea Chief]

Ive been thinking what a huge job this would be, i can see it driving me insane.

This is one area of used gtr buying Ive never considered tbh- IE whether previous owner has bent the strings in normal 3-12th frets to oblivion with his "axe soloing" causing all thesze frets to lower/ square te tops of. I think to an extent this is whats happened here. I cant be done spending £80 on work to refret it so looks like I'll have to leave it be. Its still really quite playable thankfully, I dont mind slight buzzes here and there

Even with this in mind as possible, it still doesnt solve the relief prob.. still stalwart straight. I have a feeling the fraction of relief I do measure is actually the lower frets mid board compared to 1st and last, rather than any neck bow.

Thanks for the offer Steve- but I know Id only do a royal cock up job 1st time.

[Sea Chief]

Well f&&k me if he hasnt actually posted something other than childish sh*t but please dont post on my threads johnh. If you want to chat with your webfriends about yourself then f&&k off somewhere else and do it.

[John_H]

Well f&&k me if he hasnt actually posted something other than childish sh*t but please dont post on my threads johnh. If you want to chat with your webfriends about yourself then f&&k off somewhere else and do it.

You truly are a nasty person. I pity you. I like to help where I can. The discussion about truss rods is a good subject. Your Telecaster is quite easily fixable, but you would rather whine about it than take any action to repair it. "Woe is Me" I've yet to see any of your problems, or issues be satisfactorily resolved. Not once in any of your many threads. You have a list of excuses a mile long why you won't follow through with simple repairs. It's not that difficult.

Try some heavier strings on your tele.