Temporary insanity

[jazzjune18]

I am having a moment of temporary insanity and would love for someone to talk me out of it. I blame it on the fact that my wife is out of town. At any rate all of the instruments that I built so far have had a steel bar inserted in the neck to reinforce it. However recently I decided to take the first saga instruments kit build that I built a few years back and read graduate the top and back. I've got it sounding a lot better however it has a slight bow in the neck. More than I'm comfortable with. I tried adjusting the truss rod. I turned clockwise, I'm assuming that is tightening it. I have not noticed any change in the neck and I've basically turned until it will not turn anymore. Obviously I did this in very small increments it wasn't an all at once procedure. As I mention it just in the truss rod it had no effect on the slight bow in the neck. The bow is very slight but still enough to bother me where I can't get the action quite as low as I would like on the bridge as I see a space around the third fourth and fifth frets and so on. Now is where the real moment of temporary insanity kicks in. I am tempted to get out my large flat sanding block that I use with fretboards are troublesome and leveling the entire thing to accommodate for the not straightneck. Obviously this will lower lot of the frets which are already pretty low because they are small frets in the first place, and I would then have to dress the frets. My question is,
am I not doing something correctly with the truss rod? As you know it is a very inexpensive kit but as a turn it i amnot getting a response. Or better said. After I turn it. Thoughts?

[MikeEdgerton]

There's only one answer. Step away from the workbench and take a trip down to your favorite car dealer and buy a new car. That will take your mind off it.

[Wes Brandt]

More details needed.

What kind of truss rod? Double or old fashioned single?

Probably double, but how deep is the truss rod …if it is single (how close to the back of the neck)

A steel bar? Size? Not needed and overkill unless the wood is crap, so now, not only do you have to bend the wood backwards now you have to bend the steel backwards too…

I always put .004 or so relief (1st to 15th fret) in my mandos … I think it is essential for the lowest action.

[jazzjune18]

I am thinking it is a double. It was not installed by me it came preinstalled with the saga kit. It's a pretty cheap simple kit with pretty poor quality materials at times. The steel that I put in mine I put in there but I do not put a truss rod in there. That is a separate instrument.

[Wes Brandt]

I think all you can do is carefully tighten as much as you dare and go from there. You can loosen the strings and clamp the tail down with a fulcrum in the center of the neck and bend it back while you tighten …cautiously.

I don't like double rods myself… they are sort of trying to be "no fuss, no muss" truss rods but if they aren't installed right they don't work well and if they are installed right… too many times I've seen them center the relief in the wrong place and then, the rubber surrounding all that mass is a good way to make a dampener.

Maybe you do need to buy a new car.

[Wes Brandt]

…."no fuss, no muss" ...for the builder that is.

[Big Joe]

Try turning it in the other direction and see what that does. Again, just a little at a time.