HOW TO ADJUST YOUR TRUSS ROD

Adjusting the truss rod is fundamental to any guitar maintenance routine. But it’s widely believed to be dangerous, and even that necks can be ruined in the process. Rest assured: you needn’t be afraid of this humble device. But first, some background.

Back in the day, Leo Fender insisted that his earliest necks were so strong that they didn’t need truss rods. However, touring musicians returning to California from the Canadian cold soon persuaded him otherwise. Wood responds to heat and humidity by expanding and contracting, and it only takes a very small movement forwards or backwards for that perfect action to become uncomfortably high, or for the strings to begin