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Unusual 335 truss rod


BCorbett

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I have an old 335 I bought 15 years ago. I bought it used and It has no serial #. When I bought I did not know about serial numbers but from looking on Ebay I have guestimated it to be a 79-81 vintage. In the right light light I can see where the guitar originally had a switch for coil splitting on the treble side horn and holes filled where it used to have a trapeze tail piece. It had been refinished when I bought it.

 

My problem is the truss rod won't straighten the neck. It does not have the original brass nut. It has an unusual design. Instead of the half moon washer clamping straight down the wood there is a slot under neath the washer with a square metal spacer and under the spacer the metal channel or housing the truss rod runs through. I thought removing the spacer would allow the washer to clamp tighter, instead it pulled the truss rod channel and truss rod up an 1/8 of an inch or so. This made me nervous so I slid the whole thing back into the back into the neck and decided the spacer may be needed. If anyone has any ideas on how to get this to work or who to ask let me know. Thanks, Brendan

 

I am not sure how to attach pictures that may explain this better. So if there are any guitar experts out there who would like pictures email me, BCorbett@copper.net

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Welcome to the forum !!

Interesting........no ser# on the back of the headstock or on a paper "slip" inside the guitar body.....

i'm by no means an "expert" on truss rods, but I can help you post some pics for we curious types.

you need to have your pics hosted by one of the free services such as "image shack" photo bucket" etc.

then just right click on the "HTML address" in the pics drop down window.........use the "copy" option......then come to the post reply, or edit reply text window, and "paste" what you copied directly after the cursor.

 

the "insert photo" icon above the text window doesn't work properly with some photo hosts, so pasting directly to the text page bypasses the need for it.

 

best of luck !

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I took the spacer under half moon washer out and tightened up the truss rod. This pulled the shaft the rod runs through up against the washer so I got it tight as safely possible but it did nothing for straightening the neck. After letting it sit over night I tried pulling the whole shaft and rod out but it wasn't coming out.

 

Next I pushed every thing back as far into the neck it would go and there was enough room between the spacer and the washer that I made another spacer to go with it. Trying the other extreme, from no spacer to having a lager spacer. I got this all tightened up, let it sit over night but with no change.

 

I guess I will just have to live with a little extra relief. .016 Is not that bad really, at least not enough for me to consider having the fret board pulled and a new rod installed.

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I guess I will just have to live with a little extra relief. .016 Is not that bad really, at least not enough for me to consider having the fret board pulled and a new rod installed.

 

From what little I have been able to deduce from this post it sounds like your truss rod is FUBAR'd and that the only fix is to have it replaced. As you hint at this repair can be more expensive than a fret job. Good luck.

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