Tom Anderson Drop Top - must I really take off the neck to adjust the truss rod?!?

Dpoirier

Dpoirier

Fractal Fanatic
I dearly love my TA but I have never had to do a truss rod tweak. However, lately it's been crazy humid here and the neck is suddenly slightly convex, resulting in severe feet buzz.

I've done truss rod adjustments before on other guitars, and it was really a routine thing. But on this drop top, there isn't any truss rod access at the headstock. Rather, it's at the point where the neck meets the guitar body's top, squeezed tightly behind the neck pickup, and the philips-screw style end is only partially exposed (half of it is below the guitar's top).

So please forgive my ignorance, but I've never seen that and I have no idea how to loosen the truss rod. I'm alarmed and shocked at the thought that I'd need to remove the neck in order to perform this simple task. And doesn't the neck need to be under normal tension for a proper truss rod setup?

Please help this poor baffled guy! Thanks in advance
 
This is common on vintage Fender guitars. Yes, you need to loosen the neck bolts to access the truss rod adjustment. Stewmac sells a tool for making the adjustment without taking off the neck, but I'm not sure it will work on a TAG drop top.
 
Dpoirier said:
I dearly love my TA but I have never had to do a truss rod tweak. However, lately it's been crazy humid here and the neck is suddenly slightly convex, resulting in severe feet buzz.

I've done truss rod adjustments before on other guitars, and it was really a routine thing. But on this drop top, there isn't any truss rod access at the headstock. Rather, it's at the point where the neck meets the guitar body's top, squeezed tightly behind the neck pickup, and the philips-screw style end is only partially exposed (half of it is below the guitar's top).

So please forgive my ignorance, but I've never seen that and I have no idea how to loosen the truss rod. I'm alarmed and shocked at the thought that I'd need to remove the neck in order to perform this simple task. And doesn't the neck need to be under normal tension for a proper truss rod setup?

Please help this poor baffled guy! Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
I love TA guitars but the older ones are a major pain to adjust the truss rods! Their site doesn't even mention anything about how to adjust the older guitars. I found this on an old Harmony Central post that has the correct info:

NOTE: For guitars that adjust at the neck joint we use a 8" long 3/16" wide blade screwdriver to adjust the truss rod nut. We sand the sharp edges off the blade of the screwdriver to minimize scratching the guitar.

Hold the screwdriver at a 45-degree angle to the plane of the body. Insert the screwdriver into the screw head at the neck to body joint. Keeping the screwdriver at a 45-degree angle, push or pull it like a lever. Make sure you feel it seat into one of the four sections of the screw head before moving it. Hint: If you get in a position where the slot is disappearing below the body horizon and the next slot has not yet appeared enough to get the blade of the screwdriver into it then put the screwdriver (at a 45 degree angle) into the slot that is disappearing and twist your wrist slightly in the direction you would like it to go. This will move the screw head just enough for you to get into the next slot.

The StewMac tool https://www.stewmac.com/luthier-tools-and-supplies/types-of-tools/wrenches/truss-rod-crank-for-tele/ or a tool to open paint bucket lids can work too.
 

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I do something similar to what is described above with my vintage style tele neck that has the truss rod screw on the body end: I use a small flathead screwdriver on a diagonal to push the truss rod screw around. I use the screwdriver on the one of the four parts of the screw that are above the pickguard at the time. This was recommended to me by my luthier, but you have to be careful so you don’t damage the screw.
 
Thanks to you all, much appreciated.

I think very highly of Tom Anderson guitars, but I seriously hope they moved away from that half-baked system. Then again, there may be some technical benefits to it...
 
Dpoirier said:
Thanks to you all, much appreciated.

I think very highly of Tom Anderson guitars, but I seriously hope they moved away from that half-baked system. Then again, there may be some technical benefits to it...
Click to expand...
They switched to headstock truss rod access when they went to the 2 bolt neck joint. Both are nice improvements.
 
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