How to tell?, Neck + Trussrod bends, twists etc

Manachild

Manachild

New member
Ok, so yesterday i did something with my jackson DK2m That i'm sure some of you will find extremely stupid and suicidal.
Heres the story...
Originally it was setup for 10-46's in E, my trem is blocked and i wanted to play something in C standard, so i put a 12-54 set on it, wtihout adjusting my truss rod or anything else. I had those strings on there for a day. What are the chances that i've damaged something and how do i tell if i have? I know that sounds like a really dumb question but if its not as obvious as just looking at it to a untrained eye i want to know.

I dont know if this matters or not, but as you can probably tell in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4xfFbJ1I-E
my low C when i had those strings on there was a bit on the loose side so when i played it openly it sounded out of tune so a 54 obviously wasnt enough for the low C so hopefully that means there was less tension there?
Forgive me i'm a noob lol.

Thanks in advance,
Daniel
 
Re: How to tell?, Neck + Trussrod bends, twists etc

just stick a straightedge (about 18") over the frets & see how much "bend" there is. Alternatively chuck a capo over fret #1 & hold down on roughly #14 & see what kind of bend there is, should be roughly about half the size of the string to the eye.

I doubt you've broken anything mate, they're designed to take lots of tension & the truss rod is made for that purpose alone.
 
Re: How to tell?, Neck + Trussrod bends, twists etc

It shouldn't be a problem. I change string gauges on all my guitars all the time. As Daz said, they can take it.
 
Re: How to tell?, Neck + Trussrod bends, twists etc

I'd say short term, you won't do any harm ... it's more likely that you'd have too much relief, and that your strings wouldn't seat well in the nut slots without some small filing, if you were planning on keeping the bigger strings permanently.

I'd say as a guideline, if you go up a guage, say from 10s to 11s - as I did on my tele - then you might need a 1/8 to 1/4 turn on the truss rod ("righty-tighty"). I'm going from memory though, the best thing is to make a small adjustment, then check your relief with guages, as in a regular set up.
 
Re: How to tell?, Neck + Trussrod bends, twists etc

If you only tuned to C standard, then the tension of 12s at C would be close to or less than the tension of 10s tuned to E.
No harm done.
If you are gonna tune those 12s to E, you might want to re-set relief with your truss.
 
Re: How to tell?, Neck + Trussrod bends, twists etc

yeah, i put 10-46's back on it(what its setup for) and was surprised to find that they are tighter on that axe in E than those 12's were in C so if anything the tension was probably less.
Truth be told tho ic oulda put a 56-58 for that low c, was too flabby with that set i was using.
 
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