	Santa Cruz Guitar Company Temperature & Humidity · Cleaning, Oiling & Polishing · Action/Truss Rod Adjustment Action / Truss Rod Adjustments A new guitar will move a little in the first few weeks or months of it's life. If your guitar was at the dealer's for a while before you bought it, the dealer may have already adjusted the neck and action. If you special ordered your guitar or bought it right away after it came into the store, just take it home and play it. In this case you can count on it changing some and you will want to take it back to the dealer to have it adjusted when you notice that the action has risen or that the neck has excessive relief. If you feel confident making these adjustments yourself, or would prefer to do your own diagnostics, it is fairly simple to perform these adjustments. You will need a small metal ruler that measures accurately right out to the end. In other words the graduations should start at the end. It must be graduated at least down to 1/32". I prefer to use the 1/32" scale because the 1/64" scale has so many lines it is hard to differentiate. I read the scale as 3 1/2"/ 32" instead of 7/64". General makes a handy 6" ruler about 1/2" wide that works great and is available at most hardware stores for about $3.00. You will need an average business card, or a set of feeler gauges from an auto parts store. You will need a 1/4" drive ratchet, a 3/8" x 1/4" dr. deep socket and a 3" extension, or a 4 inch extension and a shallow socket. This setup is also available from any hardware or auto parts store. A capo. First take the capo and set it over the first fret such that you are not causing the strings to ramp up, in other words set the capo lightly on top of the fret. Then depress the low E string till it touches at the 12th fret with your right hand. Take the business card or a .012" feelers gauge and slide it between the 6th fret and the low E string. There should be just enough room for you to slide the card between, if the angle is just right, without pushing the string up. This is a delicate procedure. If the card or feeler gauge goes in with lots of room to spare, the truss rod needs to be turned clockwise to straighten the neck. If the feeler gauge or card won't slide in without pushing the string around, then the neck is possibly a little too straight. Some like to play with a straighter neck with the action just a little high at the 12th fret. This is fine but if you prefer this, there still should be some daylight at the 6th fret with the low E contacting the 1st and 12th frets. If it is touching at the 6th fret, the action will have to be higher than it should be in order to prevent buzzing. Generally, you will want between .008"– .015" of relief in the neck at the 6th fret. It is normal to have slightly more or less relief in the neck at the treble E compared to the bass E string. To adjust the truss rod, spread the D and G strings and insert the ratchet down between the strings. Slide the socket forward to the mahogany head block and then tip and pull it up towards the top of the block till the socket drops into the access hole. Push it forward while turning the extension till you feel the socket engage the truss rod nut. Then, to straighten the neck, turn the rod clockwise. To add relief, counter clockwise. On many of our truss rods there will be a neutral area between the clockwise and counterclockwise where you will feel very little resistance to turning the rod. This is normal and the amount will vary a little depending on which generation rod you have. Generally, you will want to finish the adjustment in the clockwise position on the clockwise side of the neutral area. This will ensure that the truss rod adjustment will hold. We do this for the same reason that you always down tune and then finish tuning by bringing the string up to pitch. Doing so takes up the lash in the threads so that the pressure is held firmly against the threads. It is possible that you will have to leave the truss rod engaged in the counter clockwise direction on an extremely stiff neck in order to keep the amount of relief you need in the neck. If this is the case you will probably eventually be able to reverse this after the strings have pulled against the neck for an extended period of time. You will find that the relief in the neck will increase if this becomes necessary. Just repeat the adjustment procedure. You may find that you will have to make slight adjustments of the truss rod with seasonal or humidity changes. It is important to realize that the truss rod is not the primary action adjustment. Its' purpose is to maintain the proper relief in the neck for your playing style. Action adjustments being made as a result of the top coming up from string pull or humidity changes should be made at the saddle. After determining that the neck is adjusted correctly, you can make action adjustments at the saddle or the nut. The nut will slowly wear over time so if you decide to have it slotted lower, be aware you may end up paying for someone to cut you a new nut down the line. As a rule of thumb, if you fret each string between the 2nd and 3rd fret there should be approximately .005" clearance between the bottom of the string and the top of the 1st fret. If there is any movement at all when you press the string down onto the 1st fret it will generally be a good nut height. If there is much more than .005" clearance then the nut slot is higher than it needs to be. After assuring that the neck is adjusted correctly, you can measure your action at the 12th fret. Use your steel ruler. We consider low action to be 3/32" at the Bass E and 2/32" at the treble E. Medium would be 7/64" at the Bass E and 5/64" at the Treble E. If you have high action, before lowering the saddle, you should be sure that your guitar is not grossly over-humidified. If the action is very low and the top has dropped, humidify the guitar before putting a higher saddle in it. In areas where the humidity varies a lot from summer to winter or where you are touring and going from dry to humid areas or vice versa you may want to have several saddles cut to give you the ability to quickly adjust the guitar to the varying conditions. Of course it is better to insulate the guitar from long exposure to greatly varying humidity conditions, and as discussed before, the easiest way to do this is to keep the guitar in the case and control the case environment as much as possible. Enjoy! top^
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Santa Cruz Guitar Company

Temperature & Humidity · Cleaning, Oiling & Polishing · Action/Truss Rod Adjustment

Action / Truss Rod Adjustments

A new guitar will move a little in the first few weeks or months of it's life. If your guitar was at the dealer's for a while before you bought it, the dealer may have already adjusted the neck and action. If you special ordered your guitar or bought it right away after it came into the store, just take it home and play it. In this case you can count on it changing some and you will want to take it back to the dealer to have it adjusted when you notice that the action has risen or that the neck has excessive relief. If you feel confident making these adjustments yourself, or would prefer to do your own diagnostics, it is fairly simple to perform these adjustments.

You will need a small metal ruler that measures accurately right out to the end. In other words the graduations should start at the end. It must be graduated at least down to 1/32". I prefer to use the 1/32" scale because the 1/64" scale has so many lines it is hard to differentiate. I read the scale as 3 1/2"/ 32" instead of 7/64". General makes a handy 6" ruler about 1/2" wide that works great and is available at most hardware stores for about $3.00.
You will need an average business card, or a set of feeler gauges from an auto parts store.
You will need a 1/4" drive ratchet, a 3/8" x 1/4" dr. deep socket and a 3" extension, or a 4 inch extension and a shallow socket. This setup is also available from any hardware or auto parts store.
A capo. First take the capo and set it over the first fret such that you are not causing the strings to ramp up, in other words set the capo lightly on top of the fret. Then depress the low E string till it touches at the 12th fret with your right hand. Take the business card or a .012" feelers gauge and slide it between the 6th fret and the low E string. There should be just enough room for you to slide the card between, if the angle is just right, without pushing the string up. This is a delicate procedure.

If the card or feeler gauge goes in with lots of room to spare, the truss rod needs to be turned clockwise to straighten the neck. If the feeler gauge or card won't slide in without pushing the string around, then the neck is possibly a little too straight. Some like to play with a straighter neck with the action just a little high at the 12th fret. This is fine but if you prefer this, there still should be some daylight at the 6th fret with the low E contacting the 1st and 12th frets. If it is touching at the 6th fret, the action will have to be higher than it should be in order to prevent buzzing. Generally, you will want between .008"– .015" of relief in the neck at the 6th fret. It is normal to have slightly more or less relief in the neck at the treble E compared to the bass E string.

To adjust the truss rod, spread the D and G strings and insert the ratchet down between the strings. Slide the socket forward to the mahogany head block and then tip and pull it up towards the top of the block till the socket drops into the access hole. Push it forward while turning the extension till you feel the socket engage the truss rod nut. Then, to straighten the neck, turn the rod clockwise. To add relief, counter clockwise.

On many of our truss rods there will be a neutral area between the clockwise and counterclockwise where you will feel very little resistance to turning the rod. This is normal and the amount will vary a little depending on which generation rod you have. Generally, you will want to finish the adjustment in the clockwise position on the clockwise side of the neutral area. This will ensure that the truss rod adjustment will hold. We do this for the same reason that you always down tune and then finish tuning by bringing the string up to pitch. Doing so takes up the lash in the threads so that the pressure is held firmly against the threads.

It is possible that you will have to leave the truss rod engaged in the counter clockwise direction on an extremely stiff neck in order to keep the amount of relief you need in the neck. If this is the case you will probably eventually be able to reverse this after the strings have pulled against the neck for an extended period of time. You will find that the relief in the neck will increase if this becomes necessary. Just repeat the adjustment procedure.

You may find that you will have to make slight adjustments of the truss rod with seasonal or humidity changes. It is important to realize that the truss rod is not the primary action adjustment. Its' purpose is to maintain the proper relief in the neck for your playing style. Action adjustments being made as a result of the top coming up from string pull or humidity changes should be made at the saddle.

After determining that the neck is adjusted correctly, you can make action adjustments at the saddle or the nut. The nut will slowly wear over time so if you decide to have it slotted lower, be aware you may end up paying for someone to cut you a new nut down the line. As a rule of thumb, if you fret each string between the 2nd and 3rd fret there should be approximately .005" clearance between the bottom of the string and the top of the 1st fret. If there is any movement at all when you press the string down onto the 1st fret it will generally be a good nut height. If there is much more than .005" clearance then the nut slot is higher than it needs to be. After assuring that the neck is adjusted correctly, you can measure your action at the 12th fret. Use your steel ruler. We consider low action to be 3/32" at the Bass E and 2/32" at the treble E. Medium would be 7/64" at the Bass E and 5/64" at the Treble E. If you have high action, before lowering the saddle, you should be sure that your guitar is not grossly over-humidified. If the action is very low and the top has dropped, humidify the guitar before putting a higher saddle in it.

In areas where the humidity varies a lot from summer to winter or where you are touring and going from dry to humid areas or vice versa you may want to have several saddles cut to give you the ability to quickly adjust the guitar to the varying conditions. Of course it is better to insulate the guitar from long exposure to greatly varying humidity conditions, and as discussed before, the easiest way to do this is to keep the guitar in the case and control the case environment as much as possible. Enjoy!

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