when I recently contributed to another truss rod related topic, it brought back memories of a rather interesting phenomenon I've stumbled across many years ago, and I thought I'd share it with you belatedly. Not only is it "interesting". It also has certain implications on neck adjustment procedures, which shall not remain lurking in secret secrecy.
Please pardon me if it's already been covered elsewhere in the forum - I couldn't find any related topics so far.
I call this phenomenon "truss rod torque" for now, and will try my best in explaining what the hell I mean by this.
Okay, here we go:
When I was adjusting the neck of my 1987-ish 4003, I accordingly turned the truss rod nuts clockwise in order to re-introduce some straightness, hoping to get rid of a small amount of twist in the process.
As I didn't know better back then, I simply tightened both adjustment nuts without manually forcing the neck backwards. At best, I may have de-tuned the strings a bit. No lubrication on the threads either, I hate to admit. And here comes my eureka moment:
When I was done cranking clockwise and finally let go of the wrench, the whole neck was twisted counter clockwise! Quite a bit more so than before I started.
What happened was that both due to lack of lubricant and manual relief (no pun intended!), the clockwise torque of the wrench/nut got transferred to the rod.
The rod itself must have stored this energy like a spring, only waiting for the next best opportunity to release it in the form of a counter-clockwise motion.
This motion again met little to no resistance by the neck, as it was one of the VERY thin and narrow ones. And twist it did - 1:0 for the rod!
Everything ended well though, because after I got rid of any friction between the truss rod(s) and the nut(s) the neck straightness was were I wanted it to be. No more twistin' by the pool either.
The point of me probably boring the heck out of everyone by now is this:
1. If you ever wonder why a neck twist can't be corrected no matter how long you try with the rod tension alone, first make sure there's ABSOLUTELY no friction at the threads! Always keep them well lubricated, and use the same standard procedure recommended for 4001 style hairpin rods, regardless if it's a 4003 bass!
2. What's true for Rick basses is true for ANY bass as well. Always make it easy for the rod(s) to do what they're supposed to:
To maintain a given setup rather than forcing the neck into a certain setup.
Cheers,
Karsten
