Trussrod Replacement

[Richard R]

I do hope you eventually finish it.

 

I'm picking up an HB 5 string with a mashed truss rod nut at the weekend, courtesy of the Recycling thread here. I checked with HB and the nut is welded onto the rod and can't be replaced, so the fretboard will have to come off and a replacement put in.

 

It's a project for the autumn when the nights draw in and I don't have to water the vegetable patch every evening. And I have saved up to buy the required clamps for gluing it back on again. Seriously,  a dozen more  clamps could cost more than a new bass.😁

[stewblack]

12 hours ago, Richard R said:

I do hope you eventually finish it.

 

I'm picking up an HB 5 string with a mashed truss rod nut at the weekend, courtesy of the Recycling thread here. I checked with HB and the nut is welded onto the rod and can't be replaced, so the fretboard will have to come off and a replacement put in.

 

It's a project for the autumn when the nights draw in and I don't have to water the vegetable patch every evening. And I have saved up to buy the required clamps for gluing it back on again. Seriously,  a dozen more  clamps could cost more than a new bass.😁

I wish you luck. It's actually good fun and if you avoid bring impatient and a fat fingered clutz like me you'll be fine 

[PaulThePlug]

Before having the fretboard off...

If its more a set-up and forget you are after... try a Torx bit in whats left of the hex hole... as long as it isnt jammed should bite on the edges and turn.

 

Got a few mangled allen bolts out of bikes that way.

[Richard R]

I will try that first, I just have a gut feeling that it's knackered. I'll find out on Saturday.

[Richard R]

The truss rod does move with a torx head rammed into it, I'll give it a go to see if I can get it to intonate and play about over the summer,  but the board is coming off for a proper job.

Before I start a new thread to recount my equivalent misadventures with sharp implements, two questions, probably for @Andyjr1515.

• How many clamps are realistically needed to clamp a bass neck? 
• Is ToneTech the recommended source of truss rods?

Cheers,

Rich

 

[Si600]

8 hours ago, Richard R said:

 

• How many clamps are realistically needed to clamp a bass neck?

All of them.

Have you a radiused clamping caul or block? I think that would be relatively important to give even pressure onto the fingerboard. 

[Richard R]

1 hour ago, Si600 said:

All of them.

Have you a radiused clamping caul or block? I think that would be relatively important to give even pressure onto the fingerboard. 

 

Of course not!  That's another problem to solve. 

 

(Anything to avoid practicing)

[Andyjr1515]

Hi, @Richard R

 

As the above, the general rule is 'as many as possible!'    In reality, I would typically use around 8 to 10.  This was my last build, a guitar and so with a shorter fretboard and got away with the lower of that range:

 

And as @Si600 correctly says, some form of radiussed caul is quite important.  You need to protect the back of the neck too.  I happen to have a number of radius blocks so I use those, but a piece of 15mm thick pine/deal from B&Q would do fine - just use a goose-neck scraper to scrape a small radius clearance to allow the caul to be acting on both sides of the fretboard - or add a couple of thin strips to the caul for the same effect.  The deal is what I generally use to protect the back of the neck and again, I find it stays better where it needs to be if I've scraped a bit of a radius in it.

 

Personally, yes, I use Tonetech because they are simple, decent quality and have a good range of lengths.  I try to avoid the ones that some other outlets sell that have a sleeve over the adjuster - a sleeve isn't needed functionally, and it is a few mm wider which means taking even more material out of the neck!