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Accessing a truss rod at the body of the bass (as opposed to the headstock)


marcus2

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HI All,

 

I am thinking about buying a Fender Jazz bass where any truss rod adjustment requires me to loosen the screws that hold the neck to the body.  It seems to me that after some adjustments, this could strip the wood at that spot.  Am I on track with that logic?

 

Thanks,

Marc

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In my 30+ years of bass playing with heel-adjust Fender Ps and Js, combined with working in guitar shops as Service Manager for years, doing instrument setups and repair privately, and having loads of vintage heel-adjust Fenders of all types on the bench: never once have I encountered stripped neck mounting holes. Not to say that it can't happen but it's pretty unlikely with Maple as long as the work is done properly.

You don't need to physically remove the neck to adjust the truss rod. Loosen the strings until they are slack, capo at the 1st fret to keep the strings seated and in-line, loosen the neck mounting screws approximately 4 or maybe 5 turns each until the neck is free in the pocket but screws still planted in the neck. All you need to is just enough room to turn the truss rod nut safely without marring your instrument and this should give you plenty of room. If you're concerned about slipping and damage, a couple layers of masking tape in the general area will provide enough protection. Make your adjustment, turn the screws back in the rest of the way, make sure the neck is in proper alignment and tweak if needed, tune up ...good to go!

Threaded brass inserts into the neck are always an option too and with this you'll never have to worry about it. I've read of tone and sustain enhancement this way but have never felt the need to do it myself nor have I had a customers instrument that required it.

I'm sure others will chime in on this but personally I wouldn't worry about it at all.

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2 hours ago, JGravelin said:

I'm sure others will chime in

There's nothing more to chime, you covered everything!

OK, my two cents- in nearly 50 years of playing I've rarely needed to adjust a truss rod.
Once you're dialed in things don't move much (disclaimer - I have little or no experience with mahogany necks).

 

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3 hours ago, marcus2 said:

this could strip the wood at that spot

Only if you're some kind of OCD madman that is hell on threads. Everything @JGravelin said it 100%. When you tighten your neck, just turn the screws in until you feel resistance, and give them just a couple of short bumps from there.

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A lotta Ps and Js, you don't even have to take the neck off, just the pickguard, to access the butt TR nut. This StewMac tool is worth its weight in gold for the task.

truss-rod-crank-for-tele.jpg

https://www.stewmac.com/luthier-tools-and-supplies/types-of-tools/wrenches/truss-rod-crank-for-tele.html

 

70s three bolt Fenders are bad about stripping neck bolts if you overtorque the two wood screws and/or tried to employ the silly micro-tilt screw into your setup (the first thing I do is disengage them, they are counterproductive).

Stripped neck holes are never a problem, drill them out, dowel them up and redrill them. Here's an example of a Godin with stripped bolts that I unboogered.

61013922_2048404668795040_81088342211805

 

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That StewMac tool is great for some Teles but there's no channel like that routed into USA J or P bodies. Only Warmoth does that with their bass offerings as far as I know. Heck, not even my $86 "shitty P" has a channel for the truss rod adjust ...I WISH! They all should have this.

Like Killerteddybear, I too only need to adjust the truss rod about twice a year.

In the mid-90s I had a Fender J bass with a neck that wouldn't sit still for more than a couple weeks at a time and was a royal pain in the ass to keep that thing playing right. It had graphite rods and everything .. just bad wood I guess. Eventually sold it.

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1 hour ago, JGravelin said:

Like Killerteddybear, I too only need to adjust the truss rod about twice a year.

About the same on most of my guitars. Maybe less now that I'm back in FLA. But, for years I had a maple neck '56 Relic CS Strat, I adjusted it when I got it, never had to touch the damned thing for close to ten years. Never had anything like it before or after. Impervious to humidity change!

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I just three days ago adjusted the truss rod on an '82 P using the SM crank tool by only lifting the guard, and two weeks ago I did the same with an old heel adjust J I can't recall the year. Some Fenders you can't access the butt nut, or not without potentially digging into or dimpling paint, Josh is correct on that. Sometimes the nut is too deep in the heel too. But let's just say you MIGHT want to lift the guard before you capo up, slack tension and slack the neck and pry it up because you MAY be able to adjust the rod in real time under true string tension without removing the neck, and in less time than it took you to remove the guard.

This photo from a quick Google search shows what I'm talking about. Remove the guard with this example and the crank will access and turn that nut under string tension. The whole TR nut doesn't have to show, just enough to get the crank tip in it. That's why the crank has a 90 degree head and a 45 degree head ... to give you max access to the nut's X. I forgot to mention the crank head is slightly smaller than the diameter of the nut and doesn't need a fully exposed nut to penetrate and turn it.

Tutorial - How To Setup A Bass Guitar | Pro Tools

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Here's the '82 P from a few days ago to which I referred, I had a photo of it. You can see again you can access this nut if you lift the guard.

20210217_135848e.jpg

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