Author Topic: Too strong truss rods? (Read 1578 times)

juggernaught · « **Reply #60 on:** March 17, 2009, 04:09:15 PM »

Werner, I wouldn't necessarily make that conclusion. The way I see it, neck relief is a gradient problem. Mine seems to be particularly bad since it's occurring in a very dry climate, where the neck has relatively low density due to the lack water in the neck. In your climate, the neck probably has a much higher density, having absorbed more moisture. I bet if you brought it here those truss rods would start engaging as the neck lost density became more pliable.

thebass · « **Reply #61 on:** March 17, 2009, 04:53:30 PM »

Devon, my knowledge of wood is just enough to tell that it's grown, it burns and in some rare occasions could look and sound very good :-) As an electronics engineer I feel much safer to discuss about electronics. But because we have similar problems with the same bass and setup in totally different climate regions I just concluded it must be caused by something different than humidity/temp changes.

BTW: all my Alembics imported from the US have protuding frets aside the fingerboards. It's fixed by just a few file strokes but I am sure each Bass leaves Alembic with fret edges perfectly flush Living in a rather humid region of the world I thought the wood should be expanding a little, rather than shrinking. Am I wrong ?

keith_h · « **Reply #62 on:** March 18, 2009, 01:40:48 PM »

Werner,
I experienced the same issue of protruding frets with each of my Alembic basses. I do not know if my non-Alembics did this as they all have bound finger boards. I live is a very humid area in the summer (80%-100% rH) but in the winter the furnace makes my house quite dry (10%-20% rH). Both seasons are far beyond the normal rH for northern California. I noticed the fret protrusions the first winter and have not had a problem since filing the ends.

I will say that my all maple neck basses appear to be more stable that than the Brown Bass but both require pretty major seasonal adjustments.

Keith

juggernaught · « **Reply #63 on:** March 18, 2009, 04:21:03 PM »

Werner, I think the best you could conclude from that observation is it isn't caused by just humidity/temp. In this case, it's how the humidity interacts with the particular neck, which in itself is a big set of variables. It's better to compare the same bass in different environments than compare different basses with different woods/structure.

I think Alembic says somewhere that it's not uncommon for frets to protrude the first year or so after birth. I might be talking out my ass (ass is my nature), but it may have more to do with how the wood changes after it's metamorphosis from a tree to a bass than specific environment changes....