Bass Truss Rod Woes

[astrozombie]

I have a friend who is lending me his jazz bass once more for a setuo.

the truss rod on this bass does not seem to adjust. the neck is heavily bowed and no amount of adjustment will bring it back to straight, maybe the rod is broken?

I honestly cant understand how it would happen, he isn't the kind of player that messes with his gear.

any advice on isolating the problem or making sure the truss rod is broken?

 

[jeremy]

Re: Bass Truss Rod Woes

take the tension off the neck and try to adjust it.

its possible the nut was just loose and you arent actually putting pressure on the rod

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Bass Truss Rod Woes

Poorly-made bass with heavy-gage strings under full tension for years pulling on a poorly-made/suspect-material trussrod? Yep, that'll do it.

 

[Wattage]

Re: Bass Truss Rod Woes

yeah try throwing a real light gauge of string on for awhile it might correct it a bit

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Bass Truss Rod Woes

I own several variants of the Billy Sheehan Attitude signature bass guitar. Only the top end versions seem to cope with his signature .043-.110" gauge strings. The mid and low price lookalikes are far happier with .040-.095".

Given time, a good neck and rod will recover.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Bass Truss Rod Woes

This is where stiffening rods that run parallel to the truss rod come in handy. However, not all manufacturers are willing to spend the extra money on that for anything other than the top-end models.


But I'd have to go with Jeremy's suggestion: loosen the strings completely and see if the neck goes straight. If it does, bend it back a bit, then tighten the strings up. If it won't go straight with no string tension, it's bjorked.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Bass Truss Rod Woes

take the neck off. See if you can loosen the truss rod. If you can loosen it, count how many turns you make. If you can tighten it but its the same as before, squirt some wd40 in there and try tightening it while you apply a little pressure to the neck in the direction you want. If it wont turn, its never going to.

 

[astrozombie]

Re: Bass Truss Rod Woes

take the neck off. See if you can loosen the truss rod. If you can loosen it, count how many turns you make. If you can tighten it but its the same as before, squirt some wd40 in there and try tightening it while you apply a little pressure to the neck in the direction you want. If it wont turn, its never going to.

it does turn, the neck just looses it's adjustment and goes back to having the same relief more or less.

 

[astrozombie]

Re: Bass Truss Rod Woes

I'm still working on this bass. I'm trying to get it back into shape, so far little luck.

I'm going to consider purchasing a new truss rod nut for it, the one that's in it seems a little worn..

if not I guess i could consider a replacement neck..

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Bass Truss Rod Woes

If neck is curved upward like a banana, and won't move, the truss rod isn't doing anything. It's either broken inside, somehow unseated on the other end, or the end threads are so stripped that the nut has nothing to grab on to.

If, OTOH, the neck is not upbowed, but the nut simply isn't adjusting the rod, then the truss rod is still providing stiffness, but the nut is not catching the threads enough to push or pull the rod...just enough to keep it where it is.

In any case, it's bad. The latter is easier to fix, though. You'd need to re-thread the end of the truss rod and install a new nut with the right internal threads to match.

I'd have your friend purchase a used neck from the same model off of E-Bay, rather than fixing it. That's the benefit of Fenders, and in truth, the necks were designed from the start to be replaced rather than repaired, or even refretted. If it's a Custom Shop or AVRI model, I might consider fixing it, though...only if the rod itself is not broken, but just needs to be re-threaded.

 

[J E C]

Re: Bass Truss Rod Woes

Is it possible that the nut could be bottomed out on the threads? If so you may be able to add a couple of washers to get it to adjust. I would loosen the strings up when you adjust it. Good luck.