Lunch Report- Tuesday Feb 12, 2013

Lunch- I brought in a sandwich from home.

Truss rods- The bane of my existence! Well maybe a bit overly dramatic, but when rods go bad it can be a bad sign for your guitar or bass. They are often extremely difficult or remarkable easy to repair and when a bass or guitar has a bad rod in the store their price must go down.

I have bought two basses knowing that the truss rods were non-functioning.

When you negotiate a deal like this you must consider the cost and likelihood of getting the inst. repaired and offer a price that is sensible for the value of the parts on the guitar or bass if you are faced with parting out the guitar when the repair is not successful.

The real objective of today’s report is to give you some insight into how truss rods work and how to figure out weather a bad rod can be repaired or replaced and therefore giving you the chance to pick up some great instruments for much less money.

Of the two basses that I have bought with bad rods, I have had success on one and I am still researching how to fix the other.
This work is demanding and not for the faint of heart, because you have to realize that if you fail you have a “wall hanger guitar”

First subject: Spector bass

I bought this Spector NS-2 bass in unplayable condition for the pickups.
It is a Czechoslovakian made bass that had a broken truss rod and I thought that I could remove the pickups, an EMG P-J set, and use them on another bass if I was unsuccessful.

The best feature of double acting truss rods is that they are not attached to the bass or guitar neck. They just sit in a channel routed in the neck and work like a charm. That is, until they break!
If you loosen these rods they will slide right out of the necks in which they were installed.
Sometimes this can involve a bit of effort in pulling out the old rod.
With this Spector bass, I just took a chance and loosened the rod and pulled it out of the neck.
Buying a replacement rod is simply measuring the old rod and ordering a replacement of the same dimensions.
I called Spector and they acknowledged the problem with this run of basses. A brass fitting that joined the two rods together tends to break just under the adjustment nut.
They offered to replace to rod for $75 if I shipped the bass back to them in a hard case and of course, I would pay for shipping both ways.
That is a very reasonable offer for a manufacturer to a non-original owner, but I wanted to fix it myself if I could.
I bought a double acting truss rod from Allparts for about $15. Fortunately the old rod came out with a bit of effort. It had a cloth covering over both rods that I assume was put on to limit rod rattling. The new rod was just bare steel and I was glad that it had no brass parts to break like the original rod.
I actually got the old rod working again by adding some washers under the adjustment nut.
I eventually did replace it with the new rod I purchased

Here are some pictures:

Here is a view of the whole bass and the old rod that I have just removed:

Here is the rod as it comes out of the neck:


I hope all of you have a great day and thanks for all of the replies yesterday.

bassman Bill

Truss Rods.

Had to buy a new "Bullet" to replace one that was chewed up.

G&L Dealer sold me extra washers.

Said the Factory tech support said to use 2 for the old single action rod in the Bicut necks.

Did have one crack at the first fret during shipping.

Had to provide shipping insurance docs for Factory repair or replacement.

Haven't had one with the new bi-flex/double action rod.

jamie

Wished I had a couple bottles of the best for my G&L

Bassman, I am passing on lunch for a bit as Ginny brought some candy tidbits home from her volunteer work.

The Spector bass is cool and it is fortunate that there was a notch in the headstock, were the bi-flex was orinigally installed. I am not a bi-flex fan as it is rare that a guitar develops too much baskbow. I will take the single rod or one direction any day over the bi-flex unless the bi-flex were easily removable. At least I can remove the nut and use washers. Most rods are broken when the nut runs out of threads and people snap them off. I have had several that I put washers on and it solved the problem with a lot of adjustment left. The Fender American Standards use a bi-flex and there is no removing anything without removing the skunk stripe. It almost leaves no other choice than to replace the neck. I have one that is at the end of adjustment and haven't decided what to do yet. I may attempt to remove the skunk stripe at some point.

You have some nice projects lined up. I have a couple that i need to complete which was slated for last fall but they hopefully will become spring projects. I am always running short of time. I'd really be in trouble if I were a working man!-- Darwin

Darwin,
Fender Bi-flex rods are a different design entirely. I think you are right in assuming that you would have to remove a skunk stripe to get a bi-flex out of a neck. I am all for using washers under a rod nut. It is a quick and easy fix and it should be one of the first things you do when confronted with a rod that has run out of room. It amazing what just one washer will do for a rod's ability to straighten a neck!

I have another rod project that I working on. Its a 1971 Fender Precision bass neck that I bought with no rod in it! I have new pictures but I have mis-placed my mini USB cable to connect my camera to the PC. I want this to be tomorrow's report but I may have to improvise if I can't find that cable. thanks for the reply.- Bill

Please Lord...keep me safe from buying a guitar with a bad truss rod! Good job, Bill, but I don't think I could ever fix it like you did.

Only problem I've ever had was with my 1975 Les Paul '55 Special Reissue. There was no neck relief at all with 10-46 strings and the rod completely relaxed. Never needed to fix it, but it sure made me nervous!

Bill

Bill,

Interesting topic. When I started reading the post, I thought you might divulge into fixing G&L rods. For I have a Climax bass that is broken. But there are way too many projects on my plate at the moment. Which is good. I'll be busy, and I won't be buying anything big to work on.

Good for you going the cheap route and getting the job done. Shipping would have been a deal breaker.

Thanks for posting

For I have a Climax bass that is broken.

Did you see this one ? dunno about the missing switch (easy fix)...
That'd match your Legacy nicely.

Sparkly Ebay Climax