Conference napalm::guitar

    just out of curiousity, how often DO you have truss rod adjustments
    on your bass? I've never seen fit to have one done on mine. I did 
    adjust the intonation once, but it's been fine since then. (Of course,
    I usually play on the lower 5 or 7 frets!)
    
    -Dave

     I don't know about your basses, but mine have never been 
    adjusted except when I had just bought them and had them set up
    to my liking....I can't see why it would gop out of adjustment 
    except in really bad situations like leaning against your amp 
    and forgetting to play it for a month or two!!! Why don't you 
    have it set up correctly for you ONCE and then just leave it alone
    -I can't imagine it being any good for the guitar to keep fooling
    around with it. Good luck anyhow!
    -Bill
    
    

    
    
    re: .-1
    	
    	While I'll agree that it's probably best to leave well enough
    alone, if you want to try other brands or gauges of strings, the
    adjustments will have to be made. As it stands, I haven't found
    a set of strings that I'm happy with (for my PV bass) yet. 
    
    	Also, if you have to do some work on the electronics, you
    may have to de-string the bass. In my experience, when you re-string 
    it, the intonation will have to be tweaked a little bit.
    
    	I'm just tired of paying some geezer $25 to spend maybe 15minutes
    with my bass, doing adjustments that I can probably do myself.
    
    
    -Tom

    re .-3
    
    You haven't found strings that you like for your PV?   Well this reply
    belongs in another place but it may be your PV that you don't like.  I
    had one too that I thought was a great guitar, but it just couldn't cut
    it for live playing. Its those "Super Ferrite" pickups. The lower the
    note, the louder the string, but conversely if you tried to do a string
    to string scale you'd never hear the upper notes. If you set the amp to
    hear em, the lower strings would just boom. Really unbalanced, and with
    no pole pieces to adjust - nothing you could do. Proprietary pickup
    dimenjsions too so you couldn't change pickups whithout routing to
    relieve the problem. Mine was a good looking, easy playing guitar fine
    for practice or recording, but live - it sucked.
    
    I also experienced neck warp if I left the guitar resting against the
    amp for awhile.
    
    I do have some experience with truss rod adjustment that I'll pass
    along to you which is not to say that it will save you anything. That
    is I might be all wrong so caveat emptor (or whatever the hell the
    saying is...just beware). I had some string buzz when I lowered the
    action on my bass.  Uneven buzz, so I knew that I had to adjust the
    truss rod. Well that's what I did, using a allen wrench and turning one
    way just a bit to see if the problem was helped or hindered. once I
    determined the direction, I proceded slowly testing it as I went along.
    I will say that I was nervous that all of a sudden something would go
    snap and the necdk would crack or bend like a harp.
    
    Hope this helps
    
    Dave

    
    
    
    	re: .-1
    
    	No, I *do* like the PV. I like it better that the(Genuine) Fender 
    P-Bass I had, but I like it less than the Rick I have. It's
    a great bass for a P-bass type of sound. 
    
    	I've finally gotten over the string-thing, though. I put
    a set of GHS Bass Boomers on the PV and it sounds and plays
    great. I've very pleased with it now.
    
    -Tom
    

    
    I hope this helps...
    
    strings: ---------------------------------
    frets:   ----                       ------
    	 	 -----------------------
    
    	This means your neck has a "bow", this would cause your action to 
    	be high, and truss rod should be tightened.
    
    strings: ---------------------------------
    frets:        ----------------------
    	     -----                      ------
        this means your neck has a "hump", this would cause your strings to 
    	buzz if there is an extreme "hump", and truss rod should be
    	loosened.
    
    One rule that I always try to remember is: TURN THE TRUSS ROD IN SMALL
    INCREMENTS!  You can cause damage to the wood if you don't give
    sufficient time to adjust to it's new bend.  I try to go in 1/4 turn 
    at a time and re-inspect the relief bow.  If you have an extreme hump
    or a bow, it would be wise to take your time.
    
    You probably knew this already, but I felt like opening my big
    mouth. ;-D
    
    J.

    By all means, loosen the strings when you adjust the truss rod, but
    I've never heard of "doing it in small increments". Properly dried wood
    has "memory" and should adjust correctly immediately.
    
    							John.

>   By all means, loosen the strings when you adjust the truss rod, but
>   I've never heard of "doing it in small increments". Properly dried wood
>   has "memory" and should adjust correctly immediately.
    
	Huh???

	I leave the string tension as normal when making an adjustment.
	I never turn more than 1/4 turn at a time & wait at least 1
	day before expecting the guitar/bass neck to have settled into
	it's new adjusted position. Things take time. If you rush, you 
	might get it right, but 2 days later its all wrong again. Unless you
	strip the finish off of the neck, steam heat it so that it becomes
	flexible and then clamp it to a straight piece of steel I-beam
	and then let it cool, you won't get an immediate change. I don't
	advise this, but it is possible.

	People who adjust neck truss rod bolts indiscriminately tend to 
	break them. There is no reason that you can't make simple minor
	adjustments and check the results 24 hours later. You can always
	buy another bolt on neck & replace it (about $100.00 or so) on
	strat/tele style guitars, but it ain't quite the same level of
	simplicity for a glued in neck (Les Paul/SG/ES335/Arch Top/Flat
	Top), and you'll be very sorry about the cost of getting one of
	these fixed. 

	You don't need to loosen your guitar strings (I don't see any
	benifit). Just don't rush the neck wood.

							Jens

Yes, 1/4 turn's until it's right.  I don't think I've ever moved the truss
rod bolt more than a 1/4 turn, fwiw.

And as Jens said, if you bust it, you'll be sorry.
>							You can always
>	buy another bolt on neck & replace it (about $100.00 or so) on
>	strat/tele style guitars, but it ain't quite the same level of
>	simplicity for a glued in neck (Les Paul/SG/ES335/Arch Top/Flat
>	Top), and you'll be very sorry about the cost of getting one of
>	these fixed. 

Yeah, and if you think it's bad for a glue on neck, how about a 
neck thru ??  It'd be a real bummer to ruin a custom Jackson 
or something.  For the cost, it may be worth having someone
adjust (and maybe ruin) your neck...At least they are liable
if they break it right ??

jc

    Well, I won't tell you what to do with your guitars. I only adjust
    mine once, when I buy it. If it breaks, I'm bringing it back, but
    pronto. One can expect some loss of memory due to humidity cycles, but
    it's hardly significant compared with other factors. Next thing, you'll
    be telling me not to change all my strings at the same time.
    
    I wouldn't worry about it unless I owned a piece of sh*t.
    
    							John.

    You can loosen the strings a little. You'll have to anyway to retune
    it. When you're tightening the neck (with the tuning left normal),
    the tuning will go UP!...So you CAN detune it slightly. This is
    most likely known though.
    
    J/