Sunday, October 3, 2010

Strat Truss Rod Repair, or what happens when the truss rod spins and spins.

The fret is pulled, nut is out, fret slot is cut through.
The heat is applied
 The tough part, correct amount of heat and very carefully removing the section.
Perfect!  You can see the old block still in there.
New larger block, fits tight and more solid.
Tapping the block
The Fit!!
Checking the length of the new rod
Fingerboard back on,  can not see a thing.
Ready to put it together and play.........
This Strat had it's truss rod adjusting nut rust onto the end of the truss rod.  When it was loosened it un-threaded from the block that holds it in place under the 1st fret.  Not only would the nut not come off but the rod would not thread back into the existing block.  What had happened is the plastic "straw" that goes around the truss rod got bunched up at the top end and blocked the threads.  The only way to do this correctly was to remover the nut from the truss rod and replace the upper block with a new piece of steel that will hold the rod in place.  First step was to remove the 1st fret and lightly saw with a .08" blade down through the rosewood to the maple.  You can see we heated the rosewood fingerboard with a heating blanket to soften the glue, then removed off just the 1st fret area of the fingerboard, nice and clean.  We could then remover the old block, clean up the slot, make and new threaded insert and fit it in.   Re glued the fingerboard exactly how it came off, a little buffing, replace the fret and no evidence of the repair ....  That is how it is done!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Yet another great post from the Guitar Magicians! The step-by-step photographs were a great touch.

Phil Clark said...

I think that's the cleanest version of that repair I've ever seen. Well done!