Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi all, just finished a LP replica build. After stringing it up to tension, the neck is dead straight with the truss rod nut loosened all the way. The neck needs some relief added to it, but ideally I would like to have the ability to add a lot of relief if I wanted. Basically, fully functioning truss rod with plenty of room to go in either direction. How do I go about remedying this? Do I need to remove the fretboard and if so, what do I do from there? Thanks.

Relief can be added (and removed) where we want it in the fret dressing or fretting process. Short of that if your truss rod and string tension won't produce anything but straight (or slight back bow) you have very limited and not so attractive options. If a higher gauge of string is not desirable (more tension, can pull neck into relief) then replacing the truss rod, which is a BIG deal if the instrument has been finished is the only option.

Refretting is also a big job but less invasive if the instrument has been finished and if you know what you are doing permits us to mill relief into the neck, fall-away too.

Thanks, Hesh.

I don't use any relief on my guitars or basses. You don't need it if your frets are level. Is it a double acting rod? Those are much better to use than the typical bent rod Fender or Gibson uses. I also build a little relief into my necks by clamping them to that shape when gluing on the fretboard. Just a little relief. Then I use the rod to straighten it out. That way I'm never in the situation of the rod being slack.

There used to be a way that old timer luthiers would straighten a neck without a truss rod say on a classical or what have you …I think I read it in Sloane's book on guitar repair ... they'd make a clamp and caul situation that forced the neck backwards.. then let it sit under a heat lamp for over night or longer to accomplish bending the neck into a position where they could get decent action again under tension.
Im not sure if you could do that in reverse, with a truss rod or not.
However it sounds like you only need a slight amount of move, to accomplish what you'd like .. so perhaps.
good luck
cw