Official Luthiers Forum!

Don't do a lot of electric setups, but there's a JM on my bench in dire need of a truss rod tweak. It seems you can either remove the neck or pick guard and pickup assembly to get to the adjuster. I chose to pop the neck. Is this the standard approach?

And who green lighted that design?

Yes, pop the neck to adjust.... then put it all back, and find out you've gotta go it all over again.
Of course, the peghead is stronger that the other way.

Ultimately, we must blame Leo - because he just thought necks were disposable. Don't forget, Leo couldn't even hold a pick right. He was just a guy with a screwdriver in his pocket who worked on amps.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

It just seems like a great place to upgrade specs is all.

You don't have to completely remove the neck. You can loosen the back plate screws (3/4" or so) and bend the neck down (so the adjustment screw is accessible), make the adjustment and tighten things back up. You need not loosen the strings and yes it is the same guessing game as taking it completely off.

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"I've been had again"
Tim Benware
Creedmoor, NC

Ed I suggest you think at least twice before following the advice below.





If you back the neck screws off 3/4" there isn't much screw if any holding that neck in place and an electric guitar can have up to 200lbs of pull -depending on strings and tuning. Not a position I'd want to put me or the guitar in. YMMV- JMO.

Yes. you're right. I meant to write 1/4" (to 3/8") on the back screws (body end) and a little less on the front screws (headstock side) and then tilt it up and make the adjustments. It was late and I should have reread and been more careful of what I wrote. Thanks for pointing it out (although it probably still doesn't make you feel more comfortable doing it:))

_________________
"I've been had again"
Tim Benware
Creedmoor, NC

You're welcome.

Taking the whole neck off was what I ended up doing. Seemed safer...

Yeah backing out the two screws closest to the headstock and the other two closest to the butt end a tad more... is a tried and true, well-known approach for adjusting truss rods on these axes that were sadly at that time not engineered for easier rod access. It works, is done every day, we do it too, and can be perfectly safe.

It is unnerving though if you have not done it prior or had the opportunity to see it done. I felt the same way the fist time I saw it done and then did it. This is when I was not cursing Leo.... for the poor rod access as well as lack of break angles on the G strings.... OTOH the manufacturability of Fenders was at that time and possibly still second to none and that was Leo's primary goal, to take the costs out of manufacturing and exploit the use of less expensive standard cuts of lumber. I think he nailed that one.

Can you imagine if Jimi and Eric did not have Strats? It's likely that some of the greatest tunes of the times might be shorter if someone had to schlep a Les Paul all the way through Purple Haze or Layla....