Tele Neck Has 1 More Tweak to it

[guitarmv]

I've got a VERY NICE Tokai AST'52, and the last setup felt like the last tightening available for the truss rod.

Does it make sense to plan to replace the truss rod when the neck bows down the road? I frickin love this neck (as a friend) and would like to learn about truss rods anyway.

What a killer guitar.

 

[GM Reszel]

Yeah, I had one of the strat 56' ast's way back when, they're excellent.

Sometimes a neck is on the 'rubber' side and the truss gets pulled and eventually the threads might be compromised or even get pulled to where the nut stops and thats it.

Often you can get away with putting some sort of washer or spacer to expose less stressed threads and get a better grip.

Also on necks like this (that have more relief than can be corrected) you can clamp it back, tighten the nut and gain enough straight. I just corrected a rubber neck this way. What you have to do is pull the neck from the body. Then on a bench you insert a padded wedge at the center and clamp the ends pretty extreme. While its under this extreme backbow you tighten the nut.

Finally, Stew-Mac has a truss repair kit that inserts a tool that mills away wood in the truss nut cavity, then another tool cuts a new thread. The kit is stupid expensive and I honestly look at it and try to justify the money but I bought one simply because I didn't know how to find that kind of tool locally. The repair I did fixed a $1000 neck so it was worth it.

Hope this helps,
GM Reszel

 

[walterw]

+1 to all that, but don't underestimate the simple step of lubing the nut and threads. sometimes that "last bit of turn" is just the nut dragging against the threads and the flat, especially if there's a bit of rust in there. spinning the nut all the way out and putting some wax on the flat end and a little oil in the threads (of the nut) can make all the difference.

 

[guitarmv]

You guys rule! Thanks and Happy New Year