So, a Seafoam green Squire P bass walks into a bar…

[BRENTrocks]

Well I didn’t start drinking until I had it fixed. Ha ha!!!

So one of my local guitar repair customers texts me today….”there’s something SERIOUSLY WRONG with the neck on my bass!!!! Can you fix it???!!”

I said to bring it over.

He hands it to me and he said he had tried to adjust the truss rod and it wasn’t working. I told him that I would do my very best to fix it…..BUT….no promises!!!

As I look down the neck, it’s has A TON OF BACK BOW!!!! (Truss rod is way too tight). I told him that the neck might be junk???

So I get it downstairs. I go to stick the Allen wrench in…it’s not grabbing…AT ALL!! He had the truss rod nut completely stripped out!!!!

So then I’m like, F***!!! How the hell am I gonna get this truss rod loose????

I called my best friend Tom. He’s also a player and a DIY GUY who works on his own guitars too. We’ve been friends since 1976.

Anyway, I tell tom what I’m up against. He says, “ take your Allen wrench and put a few layers of aluminum foil over the tip…and then lightly tap it in the nut with a little rubber hammer.” And we talked for a bit and after I hung up, I took his advice.

And I’ll be dammed. It worked!!

I was able to loosen the truss rod and complete the setup.

It was touch n go there for a little bit. Lol.

 

[VonBonfire]

Glad you got it squared away. That's a sweet lookin p-bass! I had a pawn shop special white one, one of the POS plywood squier p-basses from the nineties. The newer Squiers are so much nicer quality but dang I made a good bit of money gigging that hunka junk back in those days just playing it through my four hole Marshall with the channels jumped and fed into a 1x15 Peavey cab.

 

[Floyd Eye]

It’s good you got it working. Next guy to adjust it might not be as lucky. Had your trick not worked it would have been cheaper to stick a new neck on it then actually repair the truss rod.

I can’t count on two hands how many fucked up Squire P basses I had given to me or bought for less than $20 over the years. I repaired them all and set them up then donated them to kids who wanted to play but couldn’t afford a bass or to local schools for their music department.

 

[chumbucket]

I'm going to use that foil trick in the future!