[Fredhk]

I have seen diagrams of what happens when you adjust the truss rod or set bridge and nut height but is there anyone out there that can give some insight to the how the guitar feels as something is adjusted. Does the adjustment make the strings tighter or looser, easier to play chords, bend strings etc if you stay in standard tuning. I was told once adjusting the truss can change the string tension differently depending on weather you are at the top of neck middle or bottem.

What does the height adjustment on a stop tail piece do. I think thats what its called, its where the strings attach.

[Stratrat]

You might want to read this thread, which is "pinned" at the top of the page. It should help greatly with understanding truss rod and action adjustments.

[allthumbs]

The closer the strings are to the frets, the easier it is to play fast and hold chords. The down side is that medium to hard strumming can cause string buzz as they hit the frets. Depending on your playing style, you adjust the string action to suit. The change in string tension is negligible. Sometimes you need to adjust the saddle or bridge height to lower or raise the strings towards the bridge end. The truss rod is like a bow so turning it raises the middle of the neck much more than the ends therefore sometime adjusting the bridge or or and the nut height is needed. That really gets into the the realm of pro players willing to spend 175 bucks or more for a setup.

[Doug]

I find that twice a year I have to make adjustments - early summer and early winter when changes in the relative humidity causes the guitar's wood to swell or shrink which in turn causes the sound board to belly out or belly in a bit.

The preferred way of adjusting this is with the saddle. You can buy a replacement saddle so that you have two - one set higher than the other, or you can use a shim under your one and only saddle. The shim can be made out of a strip of veneer - it should be a hard material. This doesn't work so well if you have an under saddle pick up.

But sometimes you have to adjust the truss rod. Be sure to only turn it a bit at a time - 1/4 turn max. It may take a while for the turn to take effect and you don't want to over do it. If you really crank the rod you can do damage - all the stress can cause the fretboard's glue to fail and the fretboard shears off of the neck. Or you can break or strip the truss rod.

After turning the truss rod, I gently coerce the neck a bit by gently tugging at it in the direction that the truss rod turn will force the neck in. Did I say gently?

[Fredhk]

When I say stop tail piece I'm talking about a bridge setup like a Gibson Les Paul has. The strings go over the bridge(saddles) thats adjustable up or down for string height but then it goes to the stop tail piece I dont understand what that has to do with string height. The only thing I can see that it does is changes the angle of the strings as they leave the saddles.