Too strong truss rods?

[pierreyves]

sorry, doble click
 
(Message edited by pierreyves on November 12, 2008)

[pierreyves]

You know what ? even a problem on Alembic bass is open, I have just the impression to enconter a wall of afficionados ... objective ? I don't know...
The only thing I can say with certitude: I bought 2 shorts scales series I, one had the same problem. I have one SC deluxe, it has this (light but...) problem. I bought 1 medium scale serie I and 1 MK 5 = no problem... My distillate = no problem .. OK, for 5 Alembic = 2 necks with problem... It's not the first or the last time this subject will be open... All basses brand news...  
I'm speaking about loosen truss rods, impossible to correct the neck,

[terryc]

Well touch wood(pardon the pun) I have never encountered this problem with my 93 MK, I oil the board three times a year and check the relief using my experience and feeler gauges.
Thinking back to ajdover's comment, I have never known this problem with bolt on necks, my old 83 Alembic powered Squier P bass who is in the hands of thrash playing son, the neck has never moved at all and I have never tweaked the rod in 25 years!
I remember someone said that JD basses had necks that almost wanted to re plant themselves back in the ground!!!!
Once when I was in Florida on holiday the band at Wet'n'Wild were all using PArker Fly guitars and Modulus bass because of the heat and humidity..the drummer must have had a mechanical ratchet key to keep his drums in tune.
Is it a climate problem for some of you??

[LMiwa]

Climate is certainly an issue here in Chicago. Hot and humid in the summer, dry and cold in the winter. It's bad enough that I have to tune the PIANO at church at least once a month!

[juggernaught]

Dry and dry here, and a little more dry in the winter.  However, around July or August, we get a rain season that's enough to swell my back door to the point of making it hard to open.

[terryc]

Well in the UK we have wet weather but humidity is no problem as we don't get it.
Heated houses may cause a problem but I have not yet experienced it(hope I never will)

[oujeebass]

For a guitar company to guarantee a neck for life of ownership, would be like a car manufacturer providing a warranty on an engine for life. It just couldn't be done. Carbon fiber is the only way to go for necks that aren't going to move due to climate.

[lbpesq]

Alembic did not charge me for my heat bend.  I can't imagine they wouldn't stand behind a new instrument on an issue such as lack of neck relief.  Purely subjective cosmetic issues, like the point in the middle of the tailpiece doesn't line up exactly with the center of the center stripe may be another matter.  
 
Bill, tgo

[LMiwa]

I don't think the problem is with Alembic charging, but with the inconvenience and cost of shipping from overseas.

[jalevinemd]

I had the same problem with Big Stubby. Truss rods were only finger tight and by the summer, there was no relief in the neck at all. Strings wouldn't even vibrate. I didn't want to send it back to Alembic for several reasons, including the thought of being without it, the risk that something could happen in shipping, plus the cost of shipping. So I went to slightly heavier gauge strings to force some relief into the neck. This worked great. I'm hoping this winter to be able to tighten the truss rods so that by summer I'll have the room to loosen them if so needed. If not, then it's off to Alembic for the heat bend.

[keurosix]

In defense of our host: I know that when they build the guitar to the customer's specs, they design the neck to work for the strings specified considering tension, guage, scale, and truss rod balance. A guitar that is set up from the factory should be able to get neck relief most of the time, barring drastic climate changes. However, when we get guitars and change the recipe by substituting strings - a very common practice - and look for a fast low action, it is easy to go beyond the design limit. My old Series 1 came from the factory with heavy guage flatwounds on it. It was not my custom order, and I hated flatwounds, so off they came in about 2 seconds. I found out rather early that I needed a medium to med-heavy guage round wound string to even get the truss rods to kick in - not my preferred guage string. I fought with this for years and finally traded away the guitar never knowing that a heat-bend was an option. Had I called Alembic, it would have been corrected and I would still have the bass today.  
Kris

[juggernaught]

Alembic also offered me a free heat bend, given the age of the instrument.  Have to pay shipping, but who can beat that sort of service?

[white_cloud]

For the very reason of this topic I switched to Carbon graphite back in the eighties. I had a Jaydee supernatural that had a crazy neck that simply became a unplayable liability in the end - a shame as it was a very attractive looking instrument.
 
Wood can be extremely unpredictable. I would expect Alembic to pull out all of the stops to rectify any problem of this kind on a new bass - reputation is a massive factor to any potential high end bass customer!

[pclifton2004]

Sorry to say but I also had this issue on my custom SC - not enough neck relief available resulting in massive buzz at the action height I wanted. It was one of the reasons I parted with the bass. Yes, I use 30-90s and it was a short scale bass, but something is a little remiss if a bass called Stanley Clarke can't handle that set-up from the factory! The irony is that an early 70s Series I small body short scale I later had came strung with 25-85s and had bags of truss rod neck relief available and worked pefectly with no undue buzz and low action! It's a shame graphite sounds like rubbish, or it would be the ideal way to go, but you can't beat the tonal qualities of wood. Perhaps dual-action truss rods would be a good progression? I had them on a GB bass and they could handle any string tension with ease. Ayway, I think I better stick with 34 scale length from now on!

[bigbadbill]

I wondered about dual action rods too. If Alembic use single action rods, they seem to be in the minority these days. Having said that, there may be valid reasons why they do so; I'd be interested to hear about this from the source.  
 
I forgot to spec my usual 40-95 Rotos on my Triple O and found it a little rattly on the E side when I fitted them (truss rods completely slackened off) after receiving it, so I kept the 45 Alembics on until recently when I fitted some old 45-100 Maximas; they seem fine so far.