Further, truss rods also allow thinner necks, which improves playability. They also allow instruments to be made from less rigid and perhaps less expensive woods and other materials that otherwise wouldn’t be able to withstand the forces of steel string tension. All of which are natural and normal.Īnd so steel (and later graphite) truss rods were introduced to counter these forces by strengthening the neck. Wood is not 100-percent rock-solid stable it reacts to climate variations in temperature and humidity by expanding, contracting, warping and bending. That could actually bend a wooden neck into a concave bow, or maybe pull one side of a neck out of whack.Ĭlimate can also affect the neck. A set of light-gauge strings can put 200 pounds of tension on a neck. You just wouldn’t believe how much tension steel strings put on the neck of a guitar or bass, something that didn’t occur with the gut and nylon strings of old-world guitars. A convex (arching) neck bow can be corrected by loosening the truss rod, thus allowing the neck to bend forward slightly in response to string tension.Ĭhief among the forces conspiring against neck stability is string tension.A concave (dipping) neck bow can be corrected by tightening the truss rod, thus resisting string tension.Fender also offers a double action truss rod adjustment wheel on all American Elite models that makes it a snap to address neck relief. A nut at one end of it (often accessible at the headstock end of a guitar with an Allen wrench, although it’s sometimes at the butt end of the neck), allows it to be tightened or loosened as necessary. What makes the truss rod so indispensable is that it’s adjustable.
It does this job well with ingenious simplicity and efficiency, constantly counteracting the tremendous physical forces that continually conspire to bend, warp and bow the neck, preventing proper intonation. The truss rod is there to do one thing-to keep the neck of your guitar straight and stable, keeping your instrument in tune all the way up its well-aligned neck. Why is it there and what do you need to do to keep it working perfectly? It’s the long metal thing that runs down the length of your guitar neck’s interior, routed deep into it and hence unseen, but nonetheless the unsung hero of steel-string instrument design.
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