My son (14) and I have just semi-completed an ST kit. It’s semi-complete in that it’s playing well enough for now with the supplied parts and some finetuning on the intonation and setup needed.
But we have an issue with what seems to be a rounded-out truss rod nut. I’ll write out what’s happened, but my main question is: what size is the truss nut on the ST kit? I think it’s 1/8ths of an inch or 0.125 inches by measuring the supplied hex key and that Stratocasters seem to be 1/8ths according to Google.
This is what I’m contemplating to fix the truss rod nut problem, and the reason I want to be 100% the nut is the 1/8ths size:
Plan A: Purchase the correct sized (I thinK 1/8ths) ‘Gripper Truss Rod Wrench’ from StewMac designed to turn rounded out truss rod nuts for about $30 shipped and see if that works. If so, problem minimised and all good. https://www.stewmac.com/Tools/Specia..._Wrenches.html
Plan B: If the above doesn’t work, then purchase a new neck from PBG for under $70 and: a) lubricate the nut and rod with penetrating spray oil (Inox is my usual brand) before attempting to turn it (if needed), b) use the above tool (or a high quality hex key) to turn the nut (if needed), and c) go really, really easy and slow when turning it—maybe a ¼ turn per day or something like that.
Does that seem a reasonable approach? I’m not up for trying to replace the truss rod.
We did this project since my son's buying an American-made Stratocaster. I have no idea about guitars or music generally, but he seems to. The aim is to be: a) an education for both of us in how guitars go together and work and can be broken, repaired, modified etc, b) as test bed for any future modifications to the Fender, and c) as a guitar to play (his fifth, with the sixth to come). The ST has all the supplied parts in it and it’s working well, it is finished with a Feast & Watson Black Japan stain and Tru-Oil on the body and head with Tung Oil on the neck.
The only real problem we had was that when we installed the strings they ran along the frets. (Our pre-build was inadequate so we found this out late).
In experimentation we found that by placing two layers of the plastic cut from a credit card under the feet of the saddle and then also rising the saddle to the maximum height, the string was playable. We concluded the neck had significant back bow and loosened the truss rod by about one to 1.5 turns over a couple of days. The nut was quite tight to turn and the supplied hex key slipped out a couple of times at the end of a ¼ turn. The rod no longer turns and when trying to turn it more, the nut feels like it might be rounded out as it just slips around easily instead of engaging in the nut.
Issue one is that the saddles are near their highest adjustment (indicating further back bow) and issue two is that further truss rod adjustments don’t seem available. Need to fix both those issues, and hopefully Plan A will work and if not then Plan B should... I think... Or are there any better ideas?
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