Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

[Jack_TriPpEr]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

I keep the truss rod covers off of my guitars because i find my guitars need adjustment every few months with change of the seasons.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

There are generally no seasons here. Always humid and hot. They need adjustment when I buy them and set them up, but rarely do I touch it after that.

 

[orpheo]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

Your necks don't move? Really? How did you accomplish that. At Aristides we don't use wood but polyester, glass fibre, carbon fibre and a proprietary core material, also a resin. That's notoriously stable, and even that moves a bit with changing temperatures. A wooden guitar neck will move. That's a given. A guitar neck of wood that does not move? Sorry, I don't see that happening. Never. Moves a little? Sure. But even that can be too much for some setups, hence.the need for easy trussrod access.

Sorry pal, but saying your necks don't move almost immediately invalidates your other claims. You're doing exactly what you are accusing me of.

And sorry, not sorry that you find me condescending. I was trying to back up my claim with my credential. Ergo, that I'm not a keyboard weekend warrior, but that I actually work with guitars. And since when is it a crime to find something nonsense and talk about that? Isn't that what a forum is all about? Sometimes a post can be perceived as a bit abrasive but you always have to ask yourself what the purpose is of a post. Did I intend to flame the poster I replied to? No. It was clearly my intent to talk about trussrods, trussrod covers and how they're cumbersome when you want to finetune your guitar and keep it at peak performance.

Sorry man. Your strawman argument won't work on me.

 

[orpheo]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

There are generally no seasons here. Always humid and hot. They need adjustment when I buy them and set them up, but rarely do I touch it after that.

That makes sense. Here, the temperature fluctuates up to 20 degrees during summer. From 32 to 12 degrees c. Day vs night. Not to mention the humidity. During winter, it's just as bad, indoors anyway, with huge fluctuations once you turn on the heaters.

As stable as our political climate is, as unstable is the weather.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

All necks might exhibit a little movement at the turn of the seasons......but who is going to so precious to take a rod cover off for one or two adjustments here or there. Thats what you should be aiming for, and what a typical climate will necessitate.
If you're having to do daily/weekly adjustment - yep, something is wrong. Either with your house or the wood, or the builder has made a super thin neck without suitable extra reinforcement.

There are a lot of necks I've had in my builds that have needed only 1 adjustment in many years. But then I never go for pencil thin necks.....

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

Orpheo, that's not what "straw man argument" means.

My guitars live in a climate controlled environment and have super low action and straight necks. I don't think I've touched a truss rod on one besides when I've drastically changed the tuning or string gauges. Sorry if that upsets you enough to inspire another essay.

 

[Jack_TriPpEr]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

There are generally no seasons here. Always humid and hot. They need adjustment when I buy them and set them up, but rarely do I touch it after that.

Yep, that makes sense for Florida. And in contrast, I'm in New England, so get all 4 seasons here

 

[ErikH]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

I had put one on my SG Jr build originally but after the mishap with the headstock, I decided to leave it off after I got it all back together. I filled the screw hole in before refinishing the face. With my LP Jr DC build that I'm starting (kit arrived on Thursday) I will not be putting a TR cover on at all.

I haven't had to adjust my Warmoth necks much at all. And the SG Jr has had a couple of adjustments here and there but nothing drastic.

 

[Snake Aces]

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.

All necks might exhibit a little movement at the turn of the seasons......but who is going to so precious to take a rod cover off for one or two adjustments here or there. Thats what you should be aiming for, and what a typical climate will necessitate.
If you're having to do daily/weekly adjustment - yep, something is wrong. Either with your house or the wood, or the builder has made a super thin neck without suitable extra reinforcement.

There are a lot of necks I've had in my builds that have needed only 1 adjustment in many years. But then I never go for pencil thin necks.....

Every single one of my necks is a 59 Roundback profile. Definitely not "paper thin" by any means. People do not understand the extreme temperature swings in MN...

 

[Snake Aces]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

There are generally no seasons here. Always humid and hot. They need adjustment when I buy them and set them up, but rarely do I touch it after that.

Indeed. It gets hot and muggy here every summer but then the winters are dry as hell with temperatures dipping to 20 below or worse. Even in the summer, it can be 72 degrees F one day and the next day it will hit 100 F. In the autumn or spring, it can be 35 degrees one day and then a heat wave of 80 degrees can swing in for a day or two.

When I say extreme swings, I mean extreme swings!

Now, when I lived in Greece from 2013 to December 2015, my guitars almost never needed adjustments. I miss that consistent weather. There were 2 seasons, swimming season and rainy season.

 

[Snake Aces]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

I had put one on my SG Jr build originally but after the mishap with the headstock, I decided to leave it off after I got it all back together. I filled the screw hole in before refinishing the face. With my LP Jr DC build that I'm starting (kit arrived on Thursday) I will not be putting a TR cover on at all.

I haven't had to adjust my Warmoth necks much at all. And the SG Jr has had a couple of adjustments here and there but nothing drastic.

Almost all of my guitars are Warmoths. They are very well-built. Still need adjustments in this climate though...

 

[Snake Aces]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

Orpheo, that's not what "straw man argument" means.

My guitars live in a climate controlled environment and have super low action and straight necks. I don't think I've touched a truss rod on one besides when I've drastically changed the tuning or string gauges. Sorry if that upsets you enough to inspire another essay.

This is kinda what I am saying. I am not going to build a climate controlled environment for my guitars. Never.

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

This is kinda what I am saying. I am not going to build a climate controlled environment for my guitars. Never.

I didn't build anything I just live in a normal suburban house with heat and air conditioning hahah

 

[Snake Aces]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

I didn't build anything I just live in a normal suburban house with heat and air conditioning hahah

I live in a normal house with Geothermal heat and air-conditioning. However, as mentioned in the original post, I do not run my heat and air all the time. I open windows whenever the weather allows for it to save the earth's precious resources as much as comfortably possible.

 

[Mr. 80's]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

Every single one of my necks is a 59 Roundback profile. Definitely not "paper thin" by any means. People do jot understand the extreme temperature swings in MN...

I understand, I use to live there but in the high north Iron Range which was much colder and extreme. We only used boiler radiators and opened windows through the year. But I didn't play guitar either, I was to busy playing hockey and skateboarding back then. It's not much different here in the Rockies in CO where I live now than what you're explaining we just don't have much humidity to deal with weather it's 90 or -20, snow or no snow. No AC no Swamp coolers just radiant electric heat and opened windows to deal with the extreme temp changes. Guitars also live outside the cases and played daily with no problems. I'm just figuring it's a mixture of higher humidity and les stable necks messing with you. When I lived in Florida any guitar I ever owned was in central heat and air for the most part and the only guitars I had to adjust once in awhile didn't have dual action truss rods (no double truss rods) that I think make the biggest difference. I just know my experiences from 2 extremes. That's why I love the Rock Maple/dual action truss rod combo it just works and is stable as hell from my experience in all extremes.

 

[SlyFoxx]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

Truss and Trem cover get taken off, screws duct-taped to the back and chucked in the drawer of many tiny musical gizmos. Not that I tweak them often if at all. My 18 year old PRS has only been tweaked once and that was after an October gig at Pumkin' Chunkin' and the temp was 27F. Even one of Paul's necks don't take kindly to that kind of abuse.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

I've got four guitars with maple necks. An Epi Dot, a Godin Exit 22, a Charvel So Cal, and a Warmoth Jazzmaster. They're all strung up in standard tuning with 10-52 or 11-48 guage strings. Temperature and humidity in our house varies from pretty warm/humid in the summer to pretty dry and cold in the winter. Only the thinnest neck (the Charvel) requires regular adjustment . . . which amounts to maybe once a year. (It's also the only guitar I'll ever own with a heel adjust rod . . . what a PITA.) The others with beefier necks go 3-5 years between truss rod adjustments.

I'm not saying that there's no reason for anyone to play with the truss rod four times a year, but it would surprise me if that was true for many people.

 

[dave74]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

Here in the Midwest it's those middle seasons where you can't run heaters or AC that sometimes require small adjustments.
My indoor humidity is fairly stable and easier to control when running climate controls.

 

[Powdered Toast Man]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

Truss rod covers? Babies. All my vintage style Fender necks have the truss rod adjustment at the heel. Some of them you can get away with just taking the pickguard off but most you need to unbolt the entire neck.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Learning to Let Go: Truss Rod Covers

The proper way is to unbolt the neck to avoid stripped threads and a chewed up pickguard.