Before I mess my guitar up...

[Casper]

Hi folks, long time Anderson freak here in Va. We had a bit of a cold spell here this week and my action on my Droptop rose up on me a bit. Normally, I have a great tech who would fix it for me, but I feel like its time to learn to do this myself. I usually keep my neck straight as an arrow and action low. I dropped my neck pickup and was able to adjust the truss rod a quarter of an inch.
Should I have taken the tension off the strings?
Anybodys thoughts on this would be appreciated..
BTW, its funny, my classic is fine. I wonder if its because my classic has a rosewood/maple neck and my drop is a solid maple??
thanx-Casper

[Stan Malinowski]

Hi Caper - Welcome Aboard!

I (and about half the world) don't believe that you need to loosen the string tension for a truss rod adjustment. The other half of the world believes the opposite! Personally I have never heard of any damaging a gitar by not loosening the srings prior to tr adjustment. I do, on the other hand, loosen the string tension when adjusting the saddle height and intonation. The small screws to adjus the saddles and intonation can possibly strip if too much string tension is present.

[Casper]

Thanks Stan! I guess I was worried needlessly.
I just absolutely suck at setting up my axes, I need to learn how to do these things myself!! BTW, cool pics of your Andys. Love your Cobra S!
I have a '96 trans blonde classic (62 roundback with SDs and a 02 Bora Bora Hollow Droptop (.30 over maple SA/SA/H2+)
Thanks again
Casper

[tom]

great advise from stan. i haven't met the no tension half though. the only reason i would ever take tension off would be if the rod was super tight feeling and i couldn't get a good shot at the nut. there is a good tech article on our site about neck adjustment.

[Casper]

Ahhh, an actual reply from the master himself! Thank you, Tom

One point. My tech tells me that he traditionally takes my neck off the guitars for periodic adjustments, (I suppose for the reason of not damaging the finish). I didn't feel like it was necessary myself,
I just did like 1/4" adjustments(turns). I will check it again this afternoon.
Should I notice an immediate change, or does the neck need to
gradually assume its new "shape"??
Cold weather would be a good discussion topic..?
thanks in advance for your response..
Shaun

[tom]

taking the neck off is unnecessary. it means untensioning(string tension) the neck which could give you some bounce back time. if you adjust under tension, you will see real time change.
a 1/4 turn is actually a big move but it depends how out you are.
cold weather alone is not realy a big factor. it's the forced air heating that dries the air and wood.

[dpeterson]

hmm i've yet to be able to adjust the truss rod without taking the neck off... maybe i'm scared to dork up the paint, but i've tried several different screw drivers with no luck, just wont turn. I'm going to try to make something to make this easier... anyone else have trouble? what do you use?

i saw this at sears.. wonder if it would help.

http://content.sears.com/data/product_images/009/41315/00941315000-dlv.jpg

Thanks,
Dave

[killerburst]

Stan,

Maybe these two threads should be combined?
http://205.214.78.128/~anderson/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=180

[Stan Malinowski]

Killer,

I will look into how (or if) they can be combined.

[Stan Malinowski]

Dave,

Interesting idea, but I think the 90 angle of the tool will goue into the body or pickguard. The regular screwdriver needs to be inserted at about a 45 degree angle into the tr nut slots to clear the body/pickguard.

[dpeterson]

hmmm maybe a little heat applied by the old propane torch and a well executed bend might help :)

bought one today at lunch... will try it out..

I also do not understand "use it as a lever". If i put a screwdriver in a slot and rock it back and forth how is that going to move the screw?

thanks,
Dave