Can't find a Truss Rod Nut for my Ibanez Jem Jr.

Marantz

Inspired
I stripped it. Checked with the main Ibanez parts dealer in the U.S. , he said they no longer make them, checked Stewac and Allparts and they only carry Fender and Gibson nuts.

The Ibanez Jem Jr is apparently a 7mm hex nut, does anyone have any idea where I can find one of these things?

My stripped hex truss rod nut. : (

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Even if you find one, how are you going to get the old one out? If you can get it out then you may be able to find a suitable substitute. If you can’t find one you can slot the one you have and reinstall it and then use a flathead screwdriver to adjust it. Getting the stripped one out is the key.
 
It will be on a two way straight rod like this;
preview.jpg
If it is a two way rod this nut is not removable . This is probably way it is stripped in the first place as whoever stripped it didn't understand the functions. The one way rod nut would come away easily.
 
Even if you find one, how are you going to get the old one out? If you can get it out then you may be able to find a suitable substitute. If you can’t find one you can slot the one you have and reinstall it and then use a flathead screwdriver to adjust it. Getting the stripped one out is the key.

I found out about trust rods through this error, I didn't know that many of them came with a removable, therefore repairable nut on the end of them. I also wondered how I was going to get this thing out, came across some YouTube videos of an old guy who repairs guitars, he's really good, what he did was bevel a hex key that was 1 mm larger than the stripped nut and jammed it in to the grip point, and got it out that way. You can now purchase these beveled hex keys at stewmac. Someone in the comments section of the YouTube video mentioned they had success by putting Crazy Glue in the nut with the usual hex key, and that actually worked for him. I'll try that first.

It will be on a two way straight rod like this;
View attachment 113939
If it is a two way rod this nut is not removable . This is probably way it is stripped in the first place as whoever stripped it didn't understand the functions. The one way rod nut would come away easily.
Thanks for this. The question now is, if the nut is not removable, is it worth the money it would take to put a new trust rod in? I'm guessing I would be looking at a couple of hundred dollars to get this fixed. I'm not sure a Jem Junior neck is really worth repairing at this cost and perhaps a better idea would be to purchase a new neck.

What I'd really like to do is find a tool where I could punch in four grooves in the existing nut so that I could use something like a Philips screwdriver to use the nut again.

I ruined the nut by applying too much torque with a hex key that didn't fit the nut exactly. The hex key was supplied by the manufacturer of this guitar, but I noticed that there was a slight bit of play with it. I found a hex key I had from another guitar that fit it better, but by then I think I had done too much damage.
 
Not viable to get it replaced (sorry about the pun) $500+
Think about it, remove the fingerboard replace the rod put on new fingerboard and refret. The chance of removing it and re glueing the original and keeping it all level are pretty small.
What is wrong with the adjustment now?
Too much relief?
A replacement neck would be your best best, Keep an eye on eBay.
 
First you need to find out for sure that the nut isn't removable.
For instance on a two way rod you will force a hump in the middle and it will get stuck if you try to unscrew it.
A two way rod has a loose midway point of about a half turn. This is where you need to get it. If you can't unscrew it any try tightening it. Also use the exact size of key and preferably a new one with a sharp end.
 
If you don’t mind the nut sticking out a bit, fabricate an Allen to female Allen 7mm drill driver bit. Shorten the sleeve end first, grind to size with one side flatter than the others. Using a mini grinding stone from a dremel, flatten one side of your existing nut. Get a nice snug fit between the two. After that pour some crazy glue in, stick the bit in, quickly sprinkle pencil shavings in the joint, and then a little more crazy glue. The pencil shavings melt into a metal from the chemical reaction.

If you’re really good with tiny grinding stones, you could also create a slot on each side, without going all the way through, then either modify a high quality screwdriver, or grind an Allen key into a diamond shape.

I have used the one size bigger, or closest fractional standard, and with a little grinding hammer it in, pull it out, a few times until it’s usable without leaving in. It all depends on how damaged the nut is.

Last but not least, I wonder if an old rg rod of the same scale would fit. Find yourself a beat up, parts only guitar.
 
If you don’t mind the nut sticking out a bit, fabricate an Allen to female Allen 7mm drill driver bit. Shorten the sleeve end first, grind to size with one side flatter than the others. Using a mini grinding stone from a dremel, flatten one side of your existing nut. Get a nice snug fit between the two. After that pour some crazy glue in, stick the bit in, quickly sprinkle pencil shavings in the joint, and then a little more crazy glue. The pencil shavings melt into a metal from the chemical reaction.

If you’re really good with tiny grinding stones, you could also create a slot on each side, without going all the way through, then either modify a high quality screwdriver, or grind an Allen key into a diamond shape.

I have used the one size bigger, or closest fractional standard, and with a little grinding hammer it in, pull it out, a few times until it’s usable without leaving in. It all depends on how damaged the nut is.

Last but not least, I wonder if an old rg rod of the same scale would fit. Find yourself a beat up, parts only guitar.
If it is a two way it is welded on so it isn't coming out without the whole rod. If it is a one way getting another nut will be easy once you get it out.
unfortunately you need experience to "feel" the tension to recognise which type is fitted.
 
If you don’t mind the nut sticking out a bit, fabricate an Allen to female Allen 7mm drill driver bit. Shorten the sleeve end first, grind to size with one side flatter than the others. Using a mini grinding stone from a dremel, flatten one side of your existing nut. Get a nice snug fit between the two. After that pour some crazy glue in, stick the bit in, quickly sprinkle pencil shavings in the joint, and then a little more crazy glue. The pencil shavings melt into a metal from the chemical reaction.

If you’re really good with tiny grinding stones, you could also create a slot on each side, without going all the way through, then either modify a high quality screwdriver, or grind an Allen key into a diamond shape.

I have used the one size bigger, or closest fractional standard, and with a little grinding hammer it in, pull it out, a few times until it’s usable without leaving in. It all depends on how damaged the nut is.

Last but not least, I wonder if an old rg rod of the same scale would fit. Find yourself a beat up, parts only guitar.

I was just thinking of ideas along the lines you have posted. Surely there's a way to solve this problem. One thing I was thinking of was buying a tapping die, I think that's what they're called? Then just putting a regular screw in there and securing it with Loctite, I've put too much Loctite in a screw before, oops, it was absolutely locked solid. Another thing I was thinking of was cutting about two to three inches of Allen wrench, and getting that secured in there, simply leave a bit poking out and then use a female allen wrench to turn the male allen wrench.

I don't have a Dremel, but now that you've pointed out how tiny they can do cuts, I'm going to have a look at them.
 
Not viable to get it replaced (sorry about the pun) $500+
Think about it, remove the fingerboard replace the rod put on new fingerboard and refret. The chance of removing it and re glueing the original and keeping it all level are pretty small.
What is wrong with the adjustment now?
Too much relief?
A replacement neck would be your best best, Keep an eye on eBay.

The adjustment right now is so close, that is what is frustrating. I just need to do a quarter counterclockwise turn for the nut to raise itself just a hair. I'm getting some spitting type sound out of the small e and B strings from about the second to 5th fret.

For the moment I put in a couple of shims, that has raised the nut about right, thing is, the shims have affected the guitars punch, it just doesn't feel right, it doesn't have the punch it had when the nut was right against the wood
 
The adjustment right now is so close, that is what is frustrating. I just need to do a quarter counterclockwise turn for the nut to raise itself just a hair. I'm getting some spitting type sound out of the small e and B strings from about the second to 5th fret.

For the moment I put in a couple of shims, that has raised the nut about right, thing is, the shims have affected the guitars punch, it just doesn't feel right, it doesn't have the punch it had when the nut was right against the wood
What is the relief at the lowest point ?
 
The adjustment right now is so close, that is what is frustrating. I just need to do a quarter counterclockwise turn for the nut to raise itself just a hair. I'm getting some spitting type sound out of the small e and B strings from about the second to 5th fret.

For the moment I put in a couple of shims, that has raised the nut about right, thing is, the shims have affected the guitars punch, it just doesn't feel right, it doesn't have the punch it had when the nut was right against the wood
This is irrelevant if it is seized or a two way rod.
 
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What is the relief at the lowest point ?

I'm sorry I don't know what relief means.

The good news is I managed to get it unstuck. I work in a big building and technicians come in for the heating system, I caught a guy and asked him if he had something called a Dremel, he did, and luckily he plays guitar, so I explained to him that I had stripped my hex-nut on the truss rod, and knew what to bring to my place.

This is what worked
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It's a C27 Torx. We put the long end into the nut, I hammered on the top to make sure it really got it in there and then wrestled the nut loose!
 
Can you unscrew it completely off or does it get tight again? If you can a replacement nut will be easy to get.
Relief is what the truss rod is actually for!!!
It is how much the neck deviates from dead level under string tension. I seriously suggest if you don't understand or are unfamiliar with what the truss rod is actually meant to do or how it does it that you leave it well alone and get it adjusted as part of a professional set up.
 
Can you unscrew it completely off or does it get tight again? If you can a replacement nut will be easy to get.
Relief is what the truss rod is actually for!!!
It is how much the neck deviates from dead level under string tension. I seriously suggest if you don't understand or are unfamiliar with what the truss rod is actually meant to do or how it does it that you leave it well alone and get it adjusted as part of a professional set up.
It was the technicians tool, so I have to go and purchase one myself to say whether or not it'll come undone completely.

I'm 50 something years old and don't make much money, I've spent so much money on technicians I'm fed up. Plus it takes 2 hours to get to the guy, then he charges twice as much as I make per hour and he's half my age, lol, he's really good, but considering my income I had to learn how to do some things myself. If you buy a guitar for $700 like I did, it'll probably need some work, I'd love to be able to afford one of these $3,000 guitars that are already set up and are made of high quality components that don't screw up. I just don't have the money. So I try to do what I can by myself.

I just finished setting up, this is with a floating bar. The action I tried to get as low as possible at the nut because playing an open a string and cording an A minor for example can be such a mess tuning wise. The open A string will always be noticeably flat in that area, so I try to get it really low. Here are pics of the strings at the nut, 12th, and 24th fret.
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Do you know how to do intonation ?
post a pic of your bridge from above.
The nut looks high. You can probably remove most of the shims.
 
Yes I do know how to do intonation, I removed the shims also. I feel you may be right about the nut, it's a stock part, but something about the depth of the grooves doesn't seem right. One of the intonation screws is stripped also. I've never had these issues before, my acoustics I adjust the truss rod on without issue, I had a strat in the past, no issues at all with the parts.

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The nut is unlikely to accurately follow the radius, all you can do is get the "E"s right and the rest has to just go with the flow.
It is unusual for the correct point for the "D" to end up forward of the high "E" but the basic pattern looks correct.
You can buy the intonation bolts from a decent hardware supply so don't pay Ibanez packaging tax.
 
Thanks a lot for your all your help, I really appreciate it.

I was curious about the nut not following the radius, it doesn't as you can clearly see here
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This is what the grooves look like when the nut is bolted in place.

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Anyways, after getting the trust rod nut unlocked earlier today and turning about a half turn counterclockwise, I've got my old guitar back. It's punchy, the action is good enough, so I'll leave everything as is after much experimentation with different gauges and brands of strings.
 
I was curious about the nut not following the radius, it doesn't as you can clearly see here
The bottom of the nut is flat as is the 'shelf' the nut sits on at the end of the fretboard, just about all Floyd/locking nuts are like this. The nut slots have an arc when looking at and connecting the bottom of the slots.
 
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