GUITAR COLLECTIONS

The Truss Rod is a metallic rod that lines the inside of a guitars neck to stabilize and correct the longitudinal forward curvature. It is employed to rectify changes to the neck’s curvature caused by the neck timbers aging, changes in humidity or to make up for changes in the tension of strings.

The tension of the Truss Rod and neck assembly is adjusted by a hex nut or an allen-key bolt on the rod, generally located either at the headstock, occasionally below a cover, or just inside the body of the guitar underneath the fret board and reachable by the sound hole.

Some Truss Rods could only be accessed by taking away the neck. Its purpose is to counterbalance the immense amount of tension the strings place on the neck, getting the neck back to a less bowed position. Turning the Truss Rod right-handed fastens it, weakening the tension of the strings and straightening the neck or producing a backward bow.

Turning the Truss Rod left-handed relaxes it, letting string tension to act on the neck and creating a forward bow. Aligning the Truss Rod affects the pitch contour of a guitar as well as the height of the strings from the fingerboard, called the action.

Some Truss Rod systems, called double action truss systems, fasten both directions, allowing the neck to be forced both forward and backward. Standard Truss Rods can only be released to a degree beyond which the neck is no longer compressed and forced backward.

Classical guitars don’t need Truss Rods as their nylon strings exercise a lower tensile force with lesser potentiality to cause constructive problems. However, their necks are oftentimes strengthened with a strip of harder wood, such as an ebony strip; a very high denseness black wood that actually sink in water, going down the back of the guitar’s neck. There is no tension adjustment on this form of support.

While Truss Rods are oftentimes made out of steel also graphite and other materials are occasionally used. Adjusting the truss rod is not advisable for beginners, as guitar necks can be easily damaged beyond mending in the process. Commonly, the Truss Rod of a brand-new musical instrument is aligned by the producer prior to sale.

Truss Rod, guitar

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