Truss rod nut slipping?

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Voltron
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Truss rod nut slipping?

Post by Voltron »

Picked up a used squier jaguar last week and when I ran through a quick set up I noticed that the truss rod nut was super loose and the neck had a decent forward bow. Tightened it up and set the neck nice and straight but found the next day that the action was quite high again. Checked and found neck bowed forward again. Maybe about 1 or 2mm gap under my straight edge in the middle of the fretboard. Straightened again but have found each time I pick up and play it it has moved forward again.

I’m at a loss to explain what is happening here. My first thought is the nut is slowly slipping but it tightened fine, seems smooth and I’ve removed the nut and it’s threads look fine. Can’t see the top of the truss rod itself so can’t say what those threads look like. It’s screwing down a decent amount so I’d be surprised if it’s slipping off all of rhe threads at once.

Could the truss rod itself be slowly pulling out? The wood under the nut compressing and allowing the neck to relax? If it was that would dripping a washer under the nut help? Could it be a case of continuing to tighten it daily until it stabilises?

Never come across anything like this. I’ve looked at the possibility of repairing the truss rod but it looks too difficult to be worth while. A new neck?

Any help from the forums collective wisdom would be appreciated.

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Re: Truss rod nut slipping?

Post by clubhouse »

Dunno, man but could the truss rod be broken somewhere along it's length through the neck? Good luck.

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Re: Truss rod nut slipping?

Post by Voltron »

clubhouse wrote: Sun Feb 05, 2023 5:49 pm Dunno, man but could the truss rod be broken somewhere along it's length through the neck? Good luck.
The truss rod still works, it just won’t stay. I’d imagine if it was broken I wouldn’t be able to straighten the neck at all 🤷‍♂️

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Re: Truss rod nut slipping?

Post by jeremyb »

It may be one of those cases where you have to let the neck settle, clamp it to a straight piece of wood or similar and then adjust the nut, leaving it for a day or so... check out Dan Erlewine's videos on youtube as he has a ton of advice for situations like this :-)
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Re: Truss rod nut slipping?

Post by Voltron »

jeremyb wrote: Sun Feb 05, 2023 6:12 pm It may be one of those cases where you have to let the neck settle, clamp it to a straight piece of wood or similar and then adjust the nut, leaving it for a day or so... check out Dan Erlewine's videos on youtube as he has a ton of advice for situations like this :-)
Thank you sir, I’ll have a look and give it a try

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Re: Truss rod nut slipping?

Post by clubhouse »

Voltron wrote: Sun Feb 05, 2023 5:51 pm
clubhouse wrote: Sun Feb 05, 2023 5:49 pm Dunno, man but could the truss rod be broken somewhere along it's length through the neck? Good luck.
The truss rod still works, it just won’t stay. I’d imagine if it was broken I wouldn’t be able to straighten the neck at all 🤷‍♂️
You're probably right but it may depend on the type of rod involved. I repaired a mate's acoustic guitar neck that had snapped after a fall. After scarfing and dowelling the joint repair to get it all together and stable I found out I couldn't dial out excessive relief. Finally frustrated I steamed off the fretboard and found the rod had snapped at the base of it's anchor point in the heel. The friction along the length of the rod in the rod trough was enough for me to tighten the nut down on but over-night it would release so creeping the neck up with string tension and against the unanchored rod.

JB's right...Dan the man has 'been there, done that' a million times with all this stuff.

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Re: Truss rod nut slipping?

Post by Voltron »

clubhouse wrote: Sun Feb 05, 2023 6:41 pm
Voltron wrote: Sun Feb 05, 2023 5:51 pm
clubhouse wrote: Sun Feb 05, 2023 5:49 pm Dunno, man but could the truss rod be broken somewhere along it's length through the neck? Good luck.
The truss rod still works, it just won’t stay. I’d imagine if it was broken I wouldn’t be able to straighten the neck at all 🤷‍♂️
You're probably right but it may depend on the type of rod involved. I repaired a mate's acoustic guitar neck that had snapped after a fall. After scarfing and dowelling the joint repair to get it all together and stable I found out I couldn't dial out excessive relief. Finally frustrated I steamed off the fretboard and found the rod had snapped at the base of it's anchor point in the heel. The friction along the length of the rod in the rod trough was enough for me to tighten the nut down on but over-night it would release so creeping the neck up with string tension and against the unanchored rod.

JB's right...Dan the man has 'been there, done that' a million times with all this stuff.
interesting. I wouldnt have thought the broken rod would get enough purchase to actual change the relief but I can’t argue with your experience. I guess if that’s the case the nut will eventually bottom out with continued tightening. I guess I’ll adjust it each day until it either settles or the nut stops moving.

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Re: Truss rod nut slipping?

Post by clubhouse »

I think the trough was so tight to the rod from the factory that it could have even broke due to poor adjustment before the neck break incident and have complicated the issues faced. The final straw for me was maxing out the adjustment against tension from a .010 gauge electric string-set and after a day on the bench, it had moved.

As you infer, it's not something I would suspect straight away...it was/is odd to my experience...obviously shaking the neck would not have revealed a broken rod rattle as it was binding in the trough. I think the rod routing on this one just slipped through QC...and exacerbated by the rod type caused a one-off balls-up.

Good thing is though that the guitar still lives, with an acoustic .12 gauge string set and holds tune well for what it is.

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Re: Truss rod nut slipping?

Post by GrantB »

It (the end) could also be pulling through softer wood. Is the rod end getting longer? Sorry if you’ve mentioned that - eyes tired!
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Re: Truss rod nut slipping?

Post by Voltron »

GrantB wrote: Sun Feb 05, 2023 10:28 pm It (the end) could also be pulling through softer wood. Is the rod end getting longer? Sorry if you’ve mentioned that - eyes tired!
Yeah I wondered if that might be the case. I’ll have to remove the nut and measure the depth to the rod and see if it’s changing

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