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I've wanted to learn how to play guitar for many years and about a month ago I got one step closer to this goal by picking up a guitar. I've been having great fun just messing around with it in the evenings even though the progress has been slow, my fingers sure do hurt. Well one of the pins holding a string in started to slip out so yesterday I took it to a music store about 70 miles away, the closest to me, and asked the proprietor about getting some new strings for it and what type of strings to use, etc. He looked at the guitar and said it has no truss rod which is very unusual and he had never see a guitar without a truss rod. I had possibly wanted to try some lighter gauge strings but he said there was no way to adjust the neck and he thought it needed adjustment to do this. The guitar is a santa cruz guitar company vintage southerner deluxe. How are neck adjustments made without a truss rod and is having no truss rod inferior? Can I use lighter gauge strings and can I tell myself of the neck needs adjustments. Many thanks for any and all help. Regards, TC

Your Guitar most definitely has a truss rod in the neck, although it may not be one that is adjustable. If the guitar has no adjustment cover at the head, have a look with an inspection mirror inside the soundhole to double check for an adjustment nut at the neck block. I mention this just in case the music store neglected to look.
I doubt very much that it would be a problem to go to a lighter gauge string as long as you stick with acoustic guitar strings and stay away from electric slinky strings. Going one gauge lighter may cause the neck to change a bit but probably not enough to make a huge difference, and you would enjoy playing it a bit more I'm sure.

Cal

To check the amount of neck relief yourself:
Sight down the guitar neck from the head end towards the body, line up the E6 string with the top of the fingerboard edge. This allows you to see how much neck relief the guitar has because the string will be a perfectly straight line.
Now do the same on the E1st side of the neck.
The neck should have a very small amount of concave(dip) relief when compared to the string. If it has a convex bow(hump) you will probably get string buzz. If it is dead straight it may play OK with some slight buzz depending on the string height.

If the neck rod is not adjustable a good guitar repair person usually can correct a problem, but unless the problem is severe it may be best left alone.

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I'm surprised that Santa Cruz would put out a guitar, even a vintage series without a truss rod. Check out their website http://www.santacruzguitar.com/acoustic ... erner.html and contact them to see if it indeed does not have a truss rod.

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The truss rods are hard to find on the Santa Cruz's. It's well hid and you have to use a socket and extension. http://www.santacruzguitar.com/care/action.html

If you go to Frank Ford's article on truss rods you'll find a blip about SCGC's. http://frets.com/FRETSPages/Musician/Ge ... tradj.html

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