Adjusting your guitar’s truss rod is easier than you think, and it’s something you should know how to do if you want your guitar to play and feel the way it should. I’m going to show you the easiest and most reliable way to adjust the truss rod in your guitar or bass. The only tool you will need is a truss rod wrench and perhaps a screw driver to gain access to the truss nut. If you don’t have a truss wrench you can find one here http://www.stewmac.com

We are going to use the strings on our instrument as a ‘straight edge’, which will help us to achieve the precision results we are after. Ok, let’s get to it! It’s important that your guitar is in playing position and not laying on its back, as the weight of the neck will affect the accuracy of the adjustment. There are several ways of getting the guitar into playing position, but the easiest is to simply sit in a chair with the guitar resting on your leg as if you were going to play it. Not all necks are perfect, so we will first evaluate the neck for possible twist. This is an important step! Hold your low ‘E’ string down at the first and last frets simultaneously. Now observe how much gap you have between the underside of the string, and the frets at the midway point between the first and last frets. Just make a mental note of that gap. Repeat the same action on the high ‘E’ string. If the gap does not look equal, meaning one string or the other appears to be closer to the frets than the other, use that string as your straight edge, and make your truss rod adjustments based on that string. If the gap looks the same, you can use either string to make your adjustment. Ideally, the gap between the string being used as the straight edge and should be about the thickness of a piece of copy paper. If the gap is greater than that, tighten the truss rod by turning it clockwise, and if the string is laying flat on the frets, loosen the truss rod by turning it counter-clockwise until you get the desired gap. Not all trust rods respond exactly the same, so until you get a feel for your particular guitar, start with an eight of a turn at a time until you reach the desired gap. This method will work on any stringed instrument with a truss rod, and is far more reliable than sighting it in by eye. Note: If you are attempting to set your guitar up, adjusting the truss rod is the adjustment you will make first, as your action will change as a result of the truss rod adjustment, changing any other adjustments you may have made prior to adjusting your neck. Once your neck is properly adjusted, you can now make any necessary bridge adjustments, and then finally nut adjustments. It takes considerable skill to cut a nut properly, so I don’t advise making nut adjustments unless you are willing to pay to have a nut repaired or replaced if something goes wrong!