Guitar Truss Rod Adjustment Direction

To reduce the amount of relief and make your guitar a little easier to play you ll want to tighten the truss rod or turn the truss rod nut clockwise.

Guitar truss rod adjustment direction.

When adjusting a truss rod in either direction you are changing the force applied to the rod. And slightly worn frets simply by adjusting the truss rod. With a properly functioning truss rod you probably won t need more than 1 8 turn in either direction to get what you re after. Whichever setup you prefer a straight neck is a good starting point.

Despite the fact there is information around the web telling readers to adjust their truss rod to raise or lower action a truss rod is not for adjusting action. Truss rod adjustments are made to alter the straightness flatness of the neck truss rods often require adjusting after changing string gauges or when temperature and humidity change the amount of bow in the neck. Some bow is necessary for a guitar to play well but you don t want it to be bowed too much. When a quality guitar leaves the factory the truss rod is adjusted according to the maker s taste in setup specs.

The types of forces that act on a truss rod are compression tension and torque. While the amount of relief is a matter. To add relief to the neck you ll want to loosen the truss rod or turn the truss rod nut counter clockwise. 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.

The truss rod pulls the neck backward. You can adjust the truss rod with a nut located at one end. Adjusting guitar truss rods. A little truss rod adjustment goes a long way as you can see by measuring your string height before and after with a string action gauge.

When tightened it counteracts the tension created by the strings the strings pull the neck forward. Loosening a truss rod turning counter clockwise adds relief to decreases tension on the neck which results in increased higher string action height. A truss rod is not for adjusting action. A truss rod is an interior metal bar running the entire length of a guitar s neck.

Despite the fact that until recently a major instrument manufacturing company included information to the contrary in their support materials. Typically a properly adjusted truss rod will leave a neck.