Truss rod broken?

[bobheff]

Hi,

I recently moved country and noticed that my guitar was buzzing a bit; I guess the change in temperature and humidity is the cause.

The guitar is a Legacy Special (the body is from 1991, I'm not sure of the year on the neck). It is probably an early production model.

I am trying to adjust the relief: I'm aiming for 0.013" at the 8th fret with a capo on the 1st and the guitar fretted at the 22nd fret. It's currently less than 0.013".

The truss rod seems to turn very easily and there doesn't seem to be a change in relief after adjusting it. (I haven't tried tightening it, only loosening it).

Could it be that the truss rod is broken? There doesn't seem to be any rattling to indicate that it is loose inside the neck (which I've read about on other posts).

[bobheff]

A quick update on this: I tightened the truss rod a little today. It seemed to tighten up a little (I didn't push it too far) so I doubt that the truss rod is loose. After leaving it a half hour or so I tried loosening it again, a half-turn or so at a time.

I still can't get rid of the backbow however. When the 6th string is pressed down at the first and last frets there is still very little room between the string and the 8th fret (less than 0.013"). The top two strings are still quite buzzy if I'm not picking very lightly. The action is, however, relatively high.

It's probably also worth mentioning that the strings are fairly light gauge (they're 9s).

[john o]

Hi Bobheff, try a 10-46 set. might be just what that guitar needs. good luck!
post some pic's of your guitar, too.

[KenC]

Hi Bobheff, try a 10-46 set. might be just what that guitar needs. good luck!
post some pic's of your guitar, too.

+1. A couple of years ago bought an '82 L-2000 from a Guitar Center, which they told me had an unrepairable neck problem. When I received it, there was a very significant backbow. It also had a set of ultralight strings. I installed a standard set, and the backbow immediately corrected. The action and intonation were perfect without any adjustments. To this day it plays exactly the same.

Ken

[bobheff]

John and Ken,

Thanks for the suggestion.

Would I need to move up to 10 gauge strings permanently or would putting 10s on for a time eventually force the neck to settle into a better shape?

[john o]

I found many years ago when i started playing a telecaster that 10-46 sounded and felt much better on that guitar than the 9-42's I had previously used on my les paul. Now i use 10-46 on most of my electrics. I just switched up from 12-54 to 13-56 on my martin acoustic, and that made all the difference in the world re: tone of individual notes and overall sound of the guitar with strumming chords. I think most of the G&L's come out of the factory strung 10-46. See whatcha think!

[bobheff]

I'll try a set of 10s and see if I can get used to them. I used to play with 11s years ago, but the last time I went up to 10s I found it to be quite difficult to play. Even after a few weeks it was tough. I guess I've got weak fingers!

As per your request, there are one or two pictures of the guitar here: http://imgur.com/a/6jf2i

[Fumble fingers]

X3 ..... 9's don't have a lot of tension to begin with .... you really feel it big time if you ever tune down ... my band tunes a full step down and my Legacy had 9's standard tuning , when I dropped it down and tried to adjust DF spring tension they were literally backed all they way out ....... I use 11's on the down tuned guitars or 10'52 and 10-46's on standard tuning , I think it sounds better too and adds a lot more tension to the neck .... it doesn't take long to get used to the bigger strings

[Craig]

Before switching string gauges, you might check to see if the truss rod nut has maxed out of threads.
Search using key word string of "truss +washers" and you should find several posts regarding adding
some washers to the truss rod to extend the range of adjustment.

For many years, G&L guitars came with 9's as the standard string gauge.
See: What gauge & brand of strings does G&L use on their guitars?.

Hope this helps.

[Craig]

Here's an inline post of your photo:



Nice finish and Swamp Ash body!

And, yes it has the Graph-Tech nut and string tree.

[Fumble fingers]

Beautiful !! ... what bridge pup is that ??

[bobheff]

The bridge has a Seymour Duncan Lil' Screamin' Demon.

As far as I can make out the other two are Seymour Duncan SSL-1s.

[KenC]

I love that clear blue finish. I just thought of one other thing: is your bridge plate parallel to the top of the guitar? If not, I would include setting it to factory spec as part of the troubleshooting.

Ken

[bobheff]

Ken: Thanks. Yes, it's a very nice finish. The guitar looks great (although I might change to knobs for black ones at some point, to match the pickup covers).

I've set the bridge up as per factory spec. I'll tweak it a bit to make perfectly sure and see if it makes a difference.

Ultimately I'd like to increase the spring tension on the bridge so that the tremolo is pretty stiff, but my initial aim was to get the guitar set up according to the factory specifications.

Craig: I had the impression that adding washers to the truss-rod threads would be useful only if I needed to *tighten* it more. I'll read up on it in the forum. Thanks!