Truss Rod Adjustment

[Stan Malinowski]

This is a question I love to ask other Anderson owners. On non-Cobra models how successful are you at adjusting the truss rod? For those of you who have tried to adjust the truss rods on Classics, Drop Tops, etc. you know that the adjustment is made at the heel of the neck. To facilitate this Anderson provides a small access area on the body so a long screwdriver can be installed and used as a lever to turn the nut. No matter how careful I am I always seem to do some damage to the pickguard or the body. I have now gotten to the point where I remove the neck and adjust the truss rod with the neck off (just like on vintage Strats).

My question is: do most of you have the same problem?

[Distortion]

Good question..
I had the same concern a couple years ago and decided to talk to the guys at Anderson regarding this issue..
What they do at Anderson ( or at least what I was told) is to take a long screw driver (mine is 16 to 18" long) and then actually grind off the edges towards the end of the screw driver so the portion that might touch the instrument or pickguard is smooth.. Once I ground the edges smooth I then used a buffer to make the metal as smooth as possible..
If you think about it, once the edges of the screwdriver are smooth you will really decrease the possibility of damaging the instrument..
One other thing that helps is to take a small piece of Drafting tape and place the tape in the recess to help protect the finish..
I use the drafting tape because it is much less sticky than normal tape and you will not risk removing the finish..

Hopefully this will be useful and I can post a picture of my screwdriver if anyone needs to see what it looks like..

[Stan Malinowski]

Distortion,

The Tech Section of the Anderson website actually has a picture/diagram of the desired "modified" screwdriver along with instructions on how to adjust the truss rod. I've done this but I usally still end hacking it up. I have a decent level of guitar experience but this is always a problem area for me.

I have a simialr problem with my Grosh Retros which also adjust at the heel. On Groshes you usually end up "scarring" the plastic neck pickup cover. Like Andersons I now remove the neck from my Groshs for tr adjustment.

With that said the coolest solution to this problem is what John Suhr does. Instead od slots in the end of the tr nut he has an allen (hex key) fitting. Take a 1/8" allen wrench insert it into the access area at the neck heel and adjust!!!! A truely great idea!!

[Distortion]

Stan,
Try using the tape next time you have to adjust the neck.. Also,
on the Anderson site it shows using an 8" screwdriver.. I tried both lengths and the longer one was easier to use..

I am honestly amazed though that you have to remove your neck to adjust the truss rod..
Unless you are using one of the Stu Mac setup jigs that simulate string tension on the neck, you really can't make an accurate adjustment while the neck is off the guitar.. I can see this being an extremely time consuming procedure due to the fact the neck might need to be removed multiple times to get the desired result

But I must agree with you regarding the allen nut adjustment on Suhrs.. Much easier..

[Stan Malinowski]

Distortion,

I use the 8" length screwdrive recommended by Anderson. I have ground down the edges smooth. I will give the tap and the longer screwdriver a try.

My father-in-law owns a machining company and he is making me up some truss rod nuts with the allen head adjustment like the Suhrs. I'll see how they work in the Andersons.

[John Price]

It would be nice if someone came up with a tool that could do the adjustment without scratching the guitar, Maybe angled and have a plastic or rubber side to it???
Stan:
I usually pop the neck!! I know!!! thats a pain but helps prevent any damage.....

[sanjay]

The truss rod adjustment for my TA 12-03-03P is at the heel of the neck.
This link did not help me https://www.andersonguitarworks.com/check-your-neck/ . The screwdriver fowls with the neck pickup.
There is already one video here for adjustments to truss rod at the headstock. Maybe TA or one of you guys can post a video of adjusting the truss rod at the heel of the neck.