Comments on: Fender vintage – truss rod adjustment

By: Jim

Jim — Mon, 11 May 2009 10:37:45 +0000

I don’t know the 50′s Classic Player Strat, but if it’s styled after a 50′s Strat the chances are that it’s the fingerboard radius that’s the problem. The early strats had a fingerboard radius of 7.25″, which means the the centre of the fingerboard is higher that the sides. Look at the picture above showing the end of my strat neck and you’ll see what I mean. If you fret one of the outside strings and then bend it towards the middle, the string will ‘choke’ on the frets above because they’re higher in the middle. Fender now use a 9.5″ radius, making the fingerboard a little flatter to avoid this problem.
Of course, it could also be the that the frets are poorly finished , or as you say, the truss rod needs adjusting. Certainly the truss rod will need adjusting if you change the string tension, but I doubt that it would make much difference to the higher registers.

Turn the adjuster anti-clockwise to slacken the truss rod and allow the strings to bow the neck more. Turn the adjuster clockwise to tighten the truss rod and compensate for the string tension by straightening the neck.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Mon, 11 May 2009 00:16:25 +0000

Hi! I have a Mexican 50′s Classic Player Strat, and the truss rod is like this one you are talking about. I don’t know if it is normal but, when I play a bend on the high E string around the 13th and 17th fret the sound of it just goes off and “dissapear”. My guitar teacher told me the neck might need more “bow” because it was too flat. My question is, if it is too flat, wich way should I move the truss rod? And does the string gauge chanches the neck bow? Because when I buyed this thing it came with .10s and I play with .9s.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:20:33 +0000

No shimmng necessary on my Strat, but the Teisco had a strip of some substance which had broken down with age. Some techs will recommend a strip of veneer or cardboard, but old credit cards are very handy, and vary slightly in thickness so you can fine tune the angle.
A much-maligned Fender idea was the 3 bolt micro-tilt system in the ’70s. Slacken the 3 neck screws, and adjust the grub screw. With these, you get the ‘bullet’ truss rod nut conveniently on the headstock.
These were seen as CBS messing further with the purity of the Strat design, and S/H prices were comparitively low. Now, they are conveniently ‘vintage’.
Sorry, I got carried away…

By: Jim

Jim — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 01:26:12 +0000

I’ve been investigating shimming too, which throws yet another curve ball into the mix (mixed metaphors I know).

I see another post coming on.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 01:14:02 +0000

Just to muddy the waters a little (it’s a family trait), When checking relief, don’t fret at the last fret – as Uncle Tom Cobbley and all will tell you. Fret at the 12th, and check your relief at the 5th fret (halfway between the nut and the 12th).
The reason is that the truss rod is designed to give relief in this area. There is no relief after the 12th fret.
On the original ’50s one piece maple necks, the T.R. adjustment was exactly the same as your Warmoth neck.
Thanks for the Fuzzmania link !
Steve.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 06:26:29 +0000

I just came across this site looking to adjust the truss rod of my EJ Strat that has the vintage style. It doesn’t take days or even days. It takes 5-10 minutes.

What you do is just loosen the strings enough so that you can unbolt the neck and take the neck off with strings all attached. Then fiddle with the adjustment and bolt the neck back on, set the loose strings back into the nut and retighten. No need to replace your set of strings everytime! A few twirls of a winder and you are set!

By: Setting up Your Guitars Truss Rod | PlayRecord.Net Blog

Setting up Your Guitars Truss Rod | PlayRecord.Net Blog — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 10:58:08 +0000

[...] James Bisset Writes this Blog – Fender vintage – truss rod adjustment [...]

By: Si Nicholls

Si Nicholls — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 11:27:45 +0000

Talk about getting back to basics!

Isn’t this a slight diversion from the recording? lol

You sure you doing this the right way round.

1) Do recording
2) Write songs
3) Build guitar

Good luck!

By: Barnaby Neale

Barnaby Neale — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 23:47:03 +0000

At a gig tonight my trusty resonator finally gave in to the pressure of gigging and the neck snapped in twain. I will never trust a G-clamp ever again. I will be getting trussed next time.

So you’ve given up fiddling with your rod? Now I look at your fastidiousness in the daylight I don’t find it quite as impressive.

Barnaby

By: Jim

Jim — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 02:17:26 +0000

Roll up! Roll up!

For only 9.99 you can see for yourself the extent of this man’s fastidiousness.

Be amazed at it’s length!

Be astounded by it’s girth!

Ladies – could you accommodate such a monster!

Gentlemen – who among you is not intimidated!

Oh – and I never reported back because the results were bloody ridickulus. That little final tweak threw the ‘angle of turn’ to ‘height of relief’ table results out the window!