New ES-339 Arrived with Truss Rod Pulled Out

[Chrisk-K]

I had to send back my son's Epi 339 due to a severe fret issue and received another one today. It has fabulous fret work. All I needed to do was to give some relief to the neck because it was dead straight.

 

When I removed the truss rod cover, I couldn't understand what I was seeing. I saw something like a bullet casing sitting at the truss rod access cavity. Then, I realized that the entire truss rod somehow slid out of the channel.

 

I slid the rod back into the channel and turned it counterclockwise. The adjustment worked.

 

How the heck did the truss rod manage to slide out? Will it likely to slide out (it seems to stay inside the channel now)? Is it something to worry about? I've bought 30+ guitars in my life and never seen something like this before.

[vomer]

You're not having much luck with these are you? Commiserations! Epiphone are using dual action truss rods in some of their guitars, so if this is one, and you managed to get an adjustment in the relief then it seems you've got it working.

[vomer]

Chris, just saw mirrorboy's post in your FDP thread, quoting an old thread here:

 

"Yes..this is normal ...Epiphone uses a self contained bi-flex neck reinforcement...it is not anchored or glued ..just sits in the

channel....if you do accidentally pull it out, push it all the way back in & put some tension on it"

 

This is from Yorkville which is the Gibson/Epiphone distributor in Canada."

 

 

On this basis I've edited my previous post.

[Chrisk-K]

I wasn't aware of the self-contained truss rod. After sliding it in, I just turned it CCW out of frustration. When the adjustment worked, I was like, "how is this thing working?"

[vomer]

Yes, that is a little surprising. Buyer: "My truss rod just fell out." Epi distributor: "yes, that's normal."