Vibra Artiste truss rod........

[burnsbonkers]

Hi all.
Been fiddling around with my V.A tonight, and altough my example has a really nice low action,(although needing a refret) i thought id adjust the truss rod.
Every one ive come across are all basically the same - and all DO the same thing -(some Fenton Weill Types too,according to MGEEK)
Its just an exposed threaded bar, and two nuts on it, simple enough, but it seems to work in the opposite direction, ie normally you would presume that tightening the nuts down into the neck would straighten it out, but in all examples ive had it sort of makes it MORE bowed.
Slackening the nuts straightens it back out...doesnt really make sense to me.
Is there something that im missing here or am i just being silly? .
ive come to the conclusion that its not really a truss rod as such like the kind in modern guitars, but a strengthening bar of some sort?
can anyone shed a bit of light on this ?.
PAT

[cockroach]

Hi Pat,

Just one piece of advice, based on hard experience...

LEAVE IT ALONE...if it ain't broke....(and you said you were happy with the action anyway!)

In 1969, I had an early '60's Gretsch Anniversary- I set about adjusting the truss rod as the neck was very warped.

I'd almost got it perfect ('just a quarter turn more...') and then BANG! Broken truss rod and an even worse bend in the neck....that guitar would be worth a lot of money these days, but I totally stuffed it up- although I was only about 19 at the time- young and foolish.

Your Burns (I had an Artiste myself in 1967) is now at least 50 years old and metal truss rods can corrode and could get metal fatigue....

I'll say no more!

[mgeek]

I think trussrods on these type of guitars are pretty much a waste of time. Never encountered one that actually did anything. Maybe in conjunction with a bit of heat and a metal bar against which to straighten, but on their own they are next to useless.

Maybe they were better when new, but I doubt it.

Someone who posts on here showed a shot of a V/A with the fretboard removed, and the truss channel was cut at an angle! What a joke...that's a recipe for a twisted neck!

[burnsbonkers]

Cockroach,
I don't intend to do any more fiddling, I an aware of the dangers of the corrosion on the bar.
I just wondered if there was another way of adjusting it that I was unaware of.
Don't worry, I also know too Well the results of foolishly over tightening truss rods... learnt that lesson many years ago.!