Leonard McCoy Posted March 27, 2021 Share Posted March 27, 2021 (edited) If you hear a creaking noise during truss rod adjustment or if you think you cannot tighten any further (lest you break something), halt whatever you are doing. Proceed as follows: Loosen the nut of the truss rod until it is completely off, take some oil like Ballistol to sparingly lubricate the inner threads of the nut as well as the threads of the truss rod, then screw the nut back on. Adjustment should now come buttery-smooth, and you should notice that you can adjust much further (even bringing the neck into a backbow) without any creaking noises or causing unnecessary stress to the truss rod. Don't forget to always loosen the strings first when tightening the truss rod. It puts less stress on the truss rod and yields better results. You can also always pre-bend the neck before tightening to take some of the workload off old truss rods. Edited March 27, 2021 by Leonard McCoy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave F Posted March 28, 2021 Share Posted March 28, 2021 I just ran into this in a new Gibson a couple months ago. A couple drops of 3 in 1 and the problem disappeared. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonard McCoy Posted March 28, 2021 Author Share Posted March 28, 2021 18 hours ago, Dave F said: I just ran into this in a new Gibson a couple months ago. A couple drops of 3 in 1 and the problem disappeared. Same here and I was wondering. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinch Posted November 14, 2021 Share Posted November 14, 2021 You just loosen the truss rod until the nut comes off? The (maximum) relief won't mess with the neck while you lube it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonard McCoy Posted November 14, 2021 Author Share Posted November 14, 2021 1 hour ago, Pinch said: You just loosen the truss rod until the nut comes off? The (maximum) relief won't mess with the neck while you lube it? You can always disengage the truss rod. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinch Posted November 14, 2021 Share Posted November 14, 2021 (edited) 26 minutes ago, Leonard McCoy said: You can always disengage the truss rod. ? Never heard of that before. Please explain! Edited November 14, 2021 by Pinch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonard McCoy Posted November 14, 2021 Author Share Posted November 14, 2021 (edited) 15 minutes ago, Pinch said: ? Never heard of that before. Please explain! In that case you might want to familiarize yourself with the workings of the guitar first. There is plenty of resources online to do so. Edited November 14, 2021 by Leonard McCoy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinch Posted November 14, 2021 Share Posted November 14, 2021 But disengage...? Google certainly didn't help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinch Posted December 4, 2021 Share Posted December 4, 2021 So... just loosen the strings, loosen the truss rod until the nut comes off, lube, put back on and tighten the truss rod? I don't have to worry about loosening the truss rod all the way (stress on neck)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonard McCoy Posted March 8, 2022 Author Share Posted March 8, 2022 (edited) On 12/4/2021 at 5:19 PM, Pinch said: So... just loosen the strings, loosen the truss rod until the nut comes off, lube, put back on and tighten the truss rod? I don't have to worry about loosening the truss rod all the way (stress on neck)? Yes, the manual given above is easy and straightforward. And you still got it wrong as to what the truss rod does. Tightening a one-way truss rod puts tension on the neck so as to counteract the string tension, and to make the neck straight again; on the contrary, loosening the truss rod relieves the neck, removing all tension from it that the truss rod previously exerted. Anyway, Dan made a video about the whole thing: Edited March 8, 2022 by Leonard McCoy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinch Posted March 11, 2022 Share Posted March 11, 2022 I get it. What I meant was if you have the TR exert x amount of force and the strings y amount of force, loosening the truss rod all the way would mean x amount of force is no longer exerted. But it's at a point now where a tiny nudge is all that will ever be necessary, if that. So I'm happy. Dan is, IMO, right about losing tone when adding relief, but I've found that even with a next to perfectly straight neck, fractions of fractions of a millimeter matter, and of course, you have all the other factors that all factor in like action and pickup height. I've spent a lot of time on this one, and believe it's as good as it can possibly be. Seriously, the tone is so good that it’s like another species of instrument compared to everything I've ever played before. Oh, and to reiterate, the BB '61s need a lot of tweaking and are insanely responsive, so don't necessarily discard them before you've spent some time fiddling with them. Wishing everyone a great weekend, and hoping for a resolution to the Ukraine mess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kwlsky Posted March 14, 2022 Share Posted March 14, 2022 On 3/8/2022 at 12:14 PM, Leonard McCoy said: Anyway, Dan made a video about the whole thing: That, and some of Dan's other truss rod videos were very informative. I followed his truss rod recommendations and adjustment techniques, and both my Gibsons are playing better. That's why I love this forum, I learned a lot with this thread. Big thanks to Leonard McCoy for starting it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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