Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

[Snake Aces]

Curse 'em to hell or put up with them for more style?

As somebody who plays my guitars daily, I think I am done with them. Most of the year, it is no big deal. I do not run my A/C nor heat constantly, so sometimes there are climatic swings on a day to day basis. Today is an open windows day, just a gorgeous day here. For my guitars? Not so much, they like to b!tc# a bit. Minor adjustments, but still.

I hate removing truss rod screws just to crank my rod a bit whenever I need some relief.

So, for my future builds, I may have to adapt a magnet truss rod cover attachment system or just go without covers.

End of rant. Back to jammin'

 

[Wattage]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

Same with underwear


Lolol

 

[Masta' C]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

I usually leave 'em on. Never felt the need to adjust the truss rod on a daily basis...that just sounds obsessive.

That said, a magnetic cover would be cool in general. Or maybe fit one of the swing-away covers used on some Ibanez'?

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

I only remove them to adjust after a string gauge change, which I don't do per guitar. Maybe once every 4-5 years I'll try a different gauge for something. So I keep the truss cover on. Looks nicer too.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

I love the truss rod wheels like on Music Man, or the adjustments on the side of the neck, like Warmoth does. We should be past the idea of truss rod covers (why screws? why not magnets?) and even worse, the Fender 'have to take the neck off' adjustments. I wish guitarists would just say no.

 

[Snake Aces]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

Same with underwear


Lolol

haha, let freedom ring... I guess

 

[Snake Aces]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

I usually leave 'em on. Never felt the need to adjust the truss rod on a daily basis...that just sounds obsessive.

That said, a magnetic cover would be cool in general. Or maybe fit one of the swing-away covers used on some Ibanez'?

I do not make daily adjustments, but with wild weather swings, it is usually about twice a month or more.

 

[Snake Aces]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

I only remove them to adjust after a string gauge change, which I don't do per guitar. Maybe once every 4-5 years I'll try a different gauge for something. So I keep the truss cover on. Looks nicer too.

I agree the covers do look nicer...

 

[Snake Aces]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

I love the truss rod wheels like on Music Man, or the adjustments on the side of the neck, like Warmoth does. We should be past the idea of truss rod covers (why screws? why not magnets?) and even worse, the Fender 'have to take the neck off' adjustments. I wish guitarists would just say no.

I really would love the side Warmoth adjustment. I will have to see if they can offer that feature on the neck specifications I prefer. I will remember to do this.

God I would hate having to remove the neck. To that, I do say no.

Yeah, it is time for magnets whenever I do need a truss rod cover though. I am just mildly superstitious when it comes to my setup. I do not want to tune two strings down enough to provide slack just to screw the cover back in place after setting it all up and making a truss rod adjustment. It gets tiring when I really just want to play while allowing the instrument to settle into stability after adjustments.

 

[piblock]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

I have a little tupperware looking plastic container with most of my truss rod covers.

 

[orpheo]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

I don't even do TR Covers anymore as of this year. It's a neat, small slot in the headstock veneer for your TR adjustment wrench. bye bye. Won't miss yah.

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

I don't think it's good for your guitars to be tweaking the truss rod that often. I rarely if ever touch my truss rods.

 

[Mr. 80's]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

Neither one of my guitars have needed a truss rod adjustment in over a decade even moving from one extreme climate to another. I leave my windows open at night as well this time of year and have a decent 20-30 degree change in temp up and down everyday and guitars still in tune day in and out. They both have hard rock maple necks and dual action truss rods so they are super stable. I also keep them setup with same gauge of strings and tuning. I didn't play guitar at the time when I lived in Northern MN so I don't know how they would react there but I do know weather is pretty extreme there. Rock maple and dual action rods are a fantastic solid combo that I plan on trying to stick with. Oh, and I like keeping my TR covers on if the guitars were made with them. Maybe thats a combo you should consider in a build if you have so much trouble with stability.

 

[Nightburst]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

I also think the spoke wheel is a very elegant solution. One of my new guitars has it and when I took it to band practise the other guitarplayer was like; 'what is that!?" Since he's not into tech stuff I felt very nerdy explaining it
Owning a few guitars, I find that the lower quality/pricepoint the guitar is, the more I need to tweak the truss rod every now and then. The more expensive ones are way more stable it seems. Curious to see how my new roasted maple axe will do in time.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

I also think the spoke wheel is a very elegant solution. One of my new guitars has it and when I took it to band practise the other guitarplayer was like; 'what is that!?" Since he's not into tech stuff I felt very nerdy explaining it
Owning a few guitars, I find that the lower quality/pricepoint the guitar is, the more I need to tweak the truss rod every now and then. The more expensive ones are way more stable it seems. Curious to see how my new roasted maple axe will do in time.

It makes everything so much easier...it is just tradition why we still use the other adjustments points. BTW, magnets should be used everywhere on a guitar. Trem covers, electronics covers...no more screws.

 

[Snake Aces]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

I am confused why people think adjusting the truss rod on a regular basis is bad. Maybe I am ignorant on the subject, but the only reason I make the adjustments is because the weather actually is affecting the setup of the guitar. When I measure the relief (with a feeler gauge, I am not eyeballing anything here) and the guitar clearly needs about an 1/8 of a clockwise turn to get the neck where I like it... why is that a big deal?

Hell, when I was gigging more regularly, a tech would make daily adjustments to my basses and guitars to make sure the relief stayed consistent from city to city.

I understand not touching the truss rods on guitars that just sit in cases or on stands, but people, I play my guitars daily for several hours per day. I can feel when an adjustment is needed. That is why the truss rod is there, for players. The truss rod is MEANT to be used, not ignored.

Finally, the cost of the instrument has nothing to do with how often an adjustment is needed. All of my guitars cost over a grand. Some of my necks cost more than most people's MIM Fenders and Epiphones. The problem is not the build quality, the problem is the wild 30 to 40 degree temperature swings that can occur on a daily basis in the state of Minnesota.

 

[Snake Aces]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

I don't even do TR Covers anymore as of this year. It's a neat, small slot in the headstock veneer for your TR adjustment wrench. bye bye. Won't miss yah.

This is awesome! I cannot wait to see this design on my bass!

 

[orpheo]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

I don't think it's good for your guitars to be tweaking the truss rod that often. I rarely if ever touch my truss rods.

Sorry but that's nonsense. I build guitars. Thats my job. I adjust the trussrod at least 20 times during construction. And for my own personal collection, I adjust the TR +- 4 to 6 times a year to compensate for minute movements. When you are used to a very flat neck, say a curve 9f 0.05mm. A difference plus or minis 0.05 makes a huge difference. A 0.1mm curve suddenly feels like someone raised the action sky high and a curve of 0.00 makes the strings buzz. You need to be able to make minute changes and i prefer to have that with as little hindrance as possible.

Also, the nut of the trussrod can slip... making as little changes for the sake of it is nonsensical in my book.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

^ Adjusting during construction is absolutely to be expected. Every time you cut wood you always have to let it rest and acclimatise to its new bulk/shape/dimension and the way it 'pulls'. I always have a 3 stage process for neck woods. Letting them rest after they have been delivered to my property. If they're a laminate then they have a rest after being glued. Then if they are a Les Paul type angled headstock shape, then after basic roughing of the shape they get rested before the final fretboard surface is planed flat.
In fact your final planing of the fretboard face should ideally be after you have shaped the back profile and before the fretboard is glued on.....or shaped.
Also, the wood during the build process is getting 'used to' being a guitar.....rather than being a tree. I cannot now count the builds I have done that have taken time to 'break in' after the string tension is permanently applied. So this is almost a completely separate and distinct scenario to a guitar which already has had the opportunity and time to have gone through this process.

A guitar that continually needs TR adjustment is either the subject of an inappropriate climate to be stored in, or a poor cut of wood to have been used as a neck.......it happens.

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

Sorry but that's nonsense. I build guitars. Thats my job. I adjust the trussrod at least 20 times during construction. And for my own personal collection, I adjust the TR +- 4 to 6 times a year to compensate for minute movements. When you are used to a very flat neck, say a curve 9f 0.05mm. A difference plus or minis 0.05 makes a huge difference. A 0.1mm curve suddenly feels like someone raised the action sky high and a curve of 0.00 makes the strings buzz. You need to be able to make minute changes and i prefer to have that with as little hindrance as possible.

Also, the nut of the trussrod can slip... making as little changes for the sake of it is nonsensical in my book.

Cool, condescending tone on this post. Almost makes you sound authoritarian but it also makes you sound insecure. I have built, sold and repaired guitars for more than half of my life big guy.

I would expect you to make minute adjustments on a new guitar you're in the middle of building. My guitars are all 20-30+ years old and their necks don't move much.

Your anecdotal perspective is not scientific evidence.