Truss Rod Testing Before Use - Luthier Tips du Jour Mailbag
In this episode, Robbie O’Brien answers a viewer’s question about truss rod installation.
Video Transcription
[on-screen text reads: Luthier Tips du Jour Mailbag]
Mailbag question: What side is up when installing an LMI truss rod?
Robert O'Brien: Today's Tips du Jour Mailbag question comes to us all the way from England. "Robert, I ordered a kit from LMI and I'm following your online course while building. I'm wondering which side is up when installing the LMI truss rod." Michael, from England.
Well Michael, if you're following my online course, check out the chapter on the neck. I go into great detail and show the LMI truss rod. I show how to install it. And the metal side to answer your question is the part that goes up. The rounded covered side is what gets buried down into the neck. The fretboard gets glued on top of that. So that answers that question. However, there are a couple other things that you need to know about truss rods in general before installing them. One is check it to make sure it's operable. There's nothing worse than putting this thing in the neck of the guitar, putting the strings on, getting ready to play your guitar and figuring out when it's time to do the setup that the truss rod is not working.
The technical term for that is bad, very bad. You want to find out that kind of stuff before you install it. So let me show you how to do that.
Testing the truss rod
So Michael, to make sure that this thing's operable, I just put one end of it in my vice and then the other end, I take my truss rod wrench, put it in there [Robert inserts his truss rod wrench into the adjustment nut end of the truss rod] and just adjust it [Robert adjusts the nut clockwise]. This is a double action truss rod, so I'm going to adjust it both ways [Robert adjusts the nut counterclockwise]. And as you can see, it's operable. If it's not working or if the threads are stripped or something, then you want to make sure you don't install that in a neck, at least not on your guitars, perhaps on your buddy's guitar you could do that, but not on your guitar.
Removing truss rod burr
Something else that you need to be aware of on the LMI truss rod, and most truss rods have a little burr or a piece of the weld that is wider than the actual truss rod itself.
So when you cut the truss rod slide, in this case, it's going to be a quarter inch wide, this won't go in until you remove that little piece of the weld there. Now a word of caution, be very careful. You don't want to compromise the weld itself. I just take a little file and file that little burr down until it's flush with the actual width of the truss rod. So very carefully, just take your file and knock that little burr down. You want to do that on both sides and on both ends because there's usually a little bit of a burr on both ends of the truss rod. So Michael from England, thank you very much for your question. With this information, you should be able to install that truss rod and make sure it's operable without any issues and happy building.
[on-screen text reads: More Luthier Tips and online courses available at www.obrienguitars.com. Private and small group guitar building and finishing instruction available.]
