Over-adjusting a truss-rod?

[Psyence88]

Hey there,

Last night I decided to adjust my truss-rod to accomodate for lower action and such, but it didn't work out to plan as much. I'm in fear that I over-adjusted it and thus I loosened the strings until I bring it to a shop(sometime in the next couple days) would this be alright? To loosen the strings? Any other measures I can take to make sure the neck of my guitar doesn't get damaged because of my..... Dumbness?

Thanks!

 

[subanots]

Re: Over-adjusting a truss-rod?

righty tighty or lefty loosey? as, which way did you turn it?

you should be able to eyeball it and get it flat again.

its really hard to break a truss rod, you have to be really cranking the thing. and not paying attention to what you are doing. unless the neck is really old or cheap.

most guitar work is 10% knowlege and 90% balls. dont be afraid, young padawan. you can fix it. use the forks.

 

[theodie]

Re: Over-adjusting a truss-rod?

Okay,when you adjust your truss rod begin by pressing on the first fret and the fret where the neck joins the body.
Look in the middle of those two points,there should be enough space there to slide a business card or two in the space.
If it's more than that you tighten the rod,less than that,loosen the rod.
Point the truss rod nut at yourself and make a motion like opening a jar,this tells you which direction tightens and loosens the rod.
Only turn the rod about an 1/8 to (max) a 1/4 of a turn at a time.
Adjust,let guitar rest for a bit check and if need be adjust some more.

Assuming the rest of the neck is sound, this is correct.

You know, quite a few guitars have that dreaded hump at the 3rd/2nd fret and it throws this method way off.

 

[Psyence88]

Re: Over-adjusting a truss-rod?

righty tighty or lefty loosey? as, which way did you turn it?

you should be able to eyeball it and get it flat again.

its really hard to break a truss rod, you have to be really cranking the thing. and not paying attention to what you are doing. unless the neck is really old or cheap.

most guitar work is 10% knowlege and 90% balls. dont be afraid, young padawan. you can fix it. use the forks.

I didn't crank the thing, but it certainly did give it one full turn to almost two around. I turned it both ways, just adjusting it. Right now it's visually bowed inward, where the action is very low at 1 and medium-ish at 12. I'm finding it really hard to crank both ways, it's not easy.

For the most part, I actually like it where it is, but I'm not sure if it's a "healthy" adjustment, the guitar plays a lot better then it did before. But again, I'm in disdain.

What would tell me if it's going to damage the guitar? If the action is too high? Too low? Too much bow? I can't imagine damaging it bowing it back, because it'd become unplayable in the middle area. Bowing it inwards too much will make the action super high in the middle and the notes in the higher area unplayable, no? I can play all of the notes on the fretboard without any buzz or hitting any dead ones. If it was adjusted wrong would there be something really wrong anyways? Or could it still play great?

Thanks,

 

[Psyence88]

Re: Over-adjusting a truss-rod?

Well, I already did it. So what measures do I take to ensure that my neck isn't/won't get damaged? Loosen the strings?

 

[jerryjg]

Re: Over-adjusting a truss-rod?

judging from my experinece, if you cranked it that much, like i did mine, I'm afraid you may have screwed the pooch my friend. Take it to a tech, although if you put it back on and cant adjust it, like i did after i tweaked mine like you did yours, and it has a bow somewhere that wont come out no matter what you do or how you attempt to adjust it, your S.O.L. Hope not though.

 

[donahue]

Re: Over-adjusting a truss-rod?

Just crank it back the way it came from. When I was really new and dumb to playing I cranked one 1 -3 full turns once. (not all at once). But I noticed I screwd up and just cranked it back.