“Adjusting The Truss Rod”

Unless you own a guitar which sports a “composite neck” (such as carbon fibre, graphite or aluminum such as Steinberger or Travis Bean guitars) from time to time you will need to adjust your guitar neck’s truss rod. Most guitar necks are made of wood of course, and wood reacts to changes in both temperature and humidity…expanding and contracting. These changes can cause a variety of problems such as; fret buzz, high action, intonation problems and dead or “fuzzy” sounding notes. Often these problems can be corrected by adjusting the truss rod.

The truss rod is a long metal bar under your fingerboard, which extends through the length of your guitar’s neck. It is adjustable either at the headstock under a small plastic plate (as with a Gibson or PRS guitars) or recessed into the body on the opposite end of the neck (as with older Fender electric guitars and most brands of acoustics). The tool required will either be an allen (hex) key, a socket/nut driver, or a flat headed screw driver. Many brand new guitars come with this tool as part of the usual “case candy” from the factory.

To determine if your neck needs adjusting you can do two things. First, sight down the entire length of the neck from the nut to the bridge, along  the bass side of the fingerboard. What you’re looking for is any kind of bow or “hump.” If the neck appears fairly straight, you next view the neck from the side…fretting the 6^th string at the first and 15^th frets. This will turn the string into a straight edge between these two points. At approximately the 7^th fret there should be a small space between the string and the frets. This space is called “relief” and you need some if your guitar is to play and sound good! If this space is fairly excessive, the truss rod must be tightened (turn clockwise). If the string is touching the frets then the truss rod must be loosened (turn counter clockwise).

A bit of warning though…over adjusting can either damage your guitar or snap the rod off inside! If in doubt, be sure to have your instrument seen to be a qualified guitar tech.