Truss Rod on 2015 J-45 TV is stuck

[bluezguy]

Hi folks,

I've come to you acoustic techies for your advice.
I'd like to lower the action on my J-45 TV and am starting with the neck adjustment. Using a draft man's 24" straightedge, I see my relief starts at fret 4 and stops at fret 12.  This is achieved by sliding a page of my water bill between the ruler and fret tops.  No big deal ... guitar sounds and plays amazing but at my age, barre chords and triads beyond the 5th fret are a bit tough.

So, off comes the truss rod cover and I attack the adjuster nut with my official Gibson truss rod tool that came with my 335. Here's the problem ... applying pressure clockwise to straighten the relief did not happen - the nut would NOT turn at all.  If I cranked it any harder, I felt I'd cause life-ending damage😠

Is it possible to shoot some food grade lube or something down the neck or is it time for a luthier?

[Sgt. Pepper]

5 minutes ago, bluezguy said:

Hi folks,

I've come to you acoustic techies for your advice.
I'd like to lower the action on my J-45 TV and am starting with the neck adjustment. Using a draft man's 24" straightedge, I see my relief starts at fret 4 and stops at fret 12.  This is achieved by sliding a page of my water bill between the ruler and fret tops.  No big deal ... guitar sounds and plays amazing but at my age, barre chords and triads beyond the 5th fret are a bit tough.

So, off comes the truss rod cover and I attack the adjuster nut with my official Gibson truss rod tool that came with my 335. Here's the problem ... applying pressure clockwise to straighten the relief did not happen - the nut would NOT turn at all.  If I cranked it any harder, I felt I'd cause life-ending damage😠

Is it possible to shoot some food grade lube or something down the neck or is it time for a luthier?

Will it go counterclockwise? It could just be it hasn't moved in a long time and is seized. If you have relief in your neck the saddle is the thing that really adjusts the action not the truss rod.

[slimt]

Take it to a luthier.  We have read something similar in the past few days.  
 

these necks move , sometimes in a direction not planned.   

[bluezguy]

Yupp ... me too thinks the luthier will be the way to go.  It does go easily counterclockwise to provide relief.  I would never mess with my saddle for the simple reason you don't want to lose the perfect amount of string break angle.  Neck is always the first and easiest adjustment on acoustics, saddle 2nd, nut is last ... unless that has all changed due to the current political environment🤣

[Twang Gang]

Since it will go counterclockwise is it possible that the rod is already tightened as far as possible?  I don't know how you would tell that personally but it seems to me if it turns in one direction it is not "frozen" and should be able to turn the other direction unless it's maxed out?  Regardless I guess the luthier will provide an answer, and hopefully not that it needs a neck reset.

[Dave F]

19 minutes ago, Twang Gang said:

Since it will go counterclockwise is it possible that the rod is already tightened as far as possible?  I don't know how you would tell that personally but it seems to me if it turns in one direction it is not "frozen" and should be able to turn the other direction unless it's maxed out?  Regardless I guess the luthier will provide an answer, and hopefully not that it needs a neck reset.

If you think it may be maxed out of threads, you can put a spacer/ washer under the nut to see if you can get more. But I agree with taking it to a luthier. I had a ‘54 J50 that was maxed out on the threads and the previous owner had some washers under the nut to fix the issue. I removed the washers and took a die and chased some more threads and it fixed it. I don’t think it’s unusual for older guitars for the buried end of the rod to dig in to the wood and move the threaded end out and cause you to run out of threads. 

[bluezguy]

Thanks folks!  She's going in to SevenCs in St. Petersburg tomorrow to get a 6 year 'tune-up'/setup.  Also getting a new Calosi bone nut & bone saddle installed.