A Truss Rod is a long metal rod that runs the length of the guitar neck, underneath your fretboard. It anchors at each end so that when you tighten or loosen the nut on one end it will straighten or bow the neck of the guitar in order to counteract the tension of the strings. You can use your truss rod to get your neck almost straight, leaving slight relief, then you can start to consider your action ie. the height of the string from the fretboard.
You may need to make occasional adjustments to your guitar to straighten your neck. Being made from natural materials, it is normal for guitars to adjust slightly to humidity and temperature, and the wood will also age and flex over time. The bone of the nut can be affected by weather changes, and using alternate tunings will affect the tension on the neck. Additionally, if you switch from a light-gauge to a heavy-gauge string, there will be more tension pulling on the neck, which will bow it slightly. Conversely, switching from heavy to light-gauge strings will have the opposite effect, releasing tension and allowing the neck to bend backward.
As such, you may need to adjust your instrument every 6-12 months. Most brand-new guitars will need one good adjustment once they have settled, and any further adjustments in future will probably be much smaller.
Do It Yourself
If you find that your action is too high, or some frets are buzzing the first thing to do is check how straight your neck is, and make adjustments to your Truss Rod if necessary. Once your neck relief is correctly aligned you can tweak the bridge or saddle height to fine-tune your action. This is a quick 5 - 10 minute process and is easy when you follow this simple guide.
Remember: you will need to turn the tool until you engage and feel tension on the truss rod nut, before this point the nut will feel loose and won’t make any difference to the neck. If you then reverse and go the other way, you will need to engage the nut in the opposite direction before it has any effect – you should feel zero tension on your allen key, and you’ll notice more tension when the nut is re-engaged.
You will receive a new truss rod adjustment tool with every Artist guitar, and we also include the allen keys required for both saddle and locking nut adjustments.
The Guitar Truss Rod Explained
The allen keys for Artist Guitars truss rods are 4mm in diameter and are a standard allen shape. This is a common size for many guitars, however, this may vary for other brands (in particular, Gibson, Maton, and Fender, which all differ very slightly).
Remember, guitars are made from natural materials and may need minor adjustments on occasion, this is normal, and exactly why we include truss rods in their construction – don’t be afraid to have a go, just reach out to us if you need assistance!“I recently got brave and bought a tool to adjust the truss rod on my Martins. Not sure I know what I’m doing. Have you published any information that might help me out?”
I haven’t specifically written a post on truss rod adjustment, which is ironic because it’s one of the top questions I get about guitar DIY. The reason I’ve avoided it is because it’s a tough topic to tackle in writing. Every guitar is just a little different in how it responds to tweaks, so there’s always a bit of “feel” and experience that comes into play.
How To Adjust An Acoustic Guitar Truss Rod
When it comes to turning the truss rod bolt, just follow the old adage: righty-tighty (clockwise) and lefty-loosey (counter clockwise). That’s if you’re oriented so that you’re facing the truss rod bolt itself. Here’s what I mean:
If your truss rod is inside the soundhole (like most acoustics), you’d be standing at the body-end of the guitar (where the strap button is) staring straight down the guitar toward the headstock. That’s where it’s righty-tighty and lefty-loosey. I’ve shown this in the photo below.
On the other hand, if you’re doing this with the guitar in the playing position, you’ll push your truss rod wrench’s handle down toward your lap to tighten, or pull it up towards your face to loosen.
How To Adjust The Neck On An Acoustic Guitar
Tightening the truss rod will apply back-pressure to the neck, essentially bending it backwards and counteracting the the pull of the strings.
You’ll usually tighten your truss rod if your action (string height) is feeling a little higher than you’d like. Your guitar’s neck may have developed just a bit too much forward-bow (relief), which can be the normal result of humidity and seasonal weather changes.
Lowering the action on your guitar requires more than just a truss rod tweak. To make a big change in your acoustic guitar’s string height, you’ll need a full setup, which involves adjusting the truss rod, sanding the bridge saddle, and sometimes deepening the string slots of the nut.
Beginners Guide To Adjusting Your Truss Rod
If you tighten the truss rod too much in an effort to get your strings as low as possible, you’ll create a back-bow, which will cause excessive fret buzz or notes that fully fret-out (don’t make any sound at all). You never want backbow in a guitar neck.
As a side note: most guitar manufacturers send out their guitars with the action purposely on the high side, so that the future owner can lower it to their personal taste. So, if you’ve ever ordered a high-end guitar and been surprised at how high the strings are, this is why. It’s rarely due to poor setup at the factory.
Loosening the truss rod will relive back-pressure on the neck, essentially allowing the neck to bend forward. You’ll do this if your strings feel too low, which is usually accompanied by annoying fret buzz or notes that completely fret-out (are completely muted).
Seymour Duncan Neck Action: Unlocking The Mysteries Of Your Guitar Neck
You’ll usually loosen the truss rod if your strings feel too low… which is often accompanied by excessive string buzz or notes that completely fret-out.
This can happen with excessive humidity, which causes the fretboard wood to swell enough that it actually bows the neck backwards slightly (or makes it flatter than it should be).
It can take a day or two for the neck to fully “settle” into an adjustment. You’ll certainly see some neck movement immediately after making a truss rod adjustment, but wait overnight to see the full effect, as the wood continues to slowly bend into its final position.
Simple Truss Rod Adjustment For An Acoustic And Electric Guitar
Many inexperienced guitar DIY-ers aren’t aware of this and think they’ve got their truss rod dialed-in… only to discover the next day that their action has mysteriously become too high or too low.
You can really end up chasing your tail this way, so be patient and give the neck enough time to settle. You can still play your guitar during this time.When a quality guitar leaves the factory, the truss rod is adjusted according to the maker’s taste in setup specs. But a change in string gauges, climate (especially a change in humidity), or simply the player’s taste may require an adjustment, even on a new guitar. If you have a guitar that played great when you got it, but has developed a higher, stiffer action over time, it may be time to learn how to adjust your truss rod so you can keep the action just the way you like it.
An adjustable truss rod is a slim steel rod embedded in the neck. One end is threaded for an adjusting nut and is accessible at either the peghead or through the soundhole. The other end is anchored to give the adjusting end something to tighten against.
Which Way Do You Turn The Truss Rod On A Telecaster?
There are two styles of adjustable truss rods: single-action (“one way”) truss rods, and double-action (“two way”) rods. One-way rods straighten the neck against string tension and upbow; two-way rods not only straighten the neck against upbow, but can also force a backbowed neck into either a straight or upbowed configuration.
Your truss rod needs adjustment when the neck of your guitar has too much or too little upbow or too much backbow.
Tightening or loosening the adjustment nut adds or lessens pressure on the rod and neck. As a general rule, tightening the nut moves the neck away from the string pull and removes upbow; loosening the nut allows the neck to relax into an upbow again (especially when helped by the strings’ pull).
Guitar Truss Rod Adjustment Guide
However, with a one-way truss rod, if the neck warps away from the string pull, no amount of loosening the truss rod will pull the neck straight, because the truss rod only works against the pull of the strings. This is why, in the 1980s, double-action truss rods began to be used widely.
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