G&L L-1000 truss rod

[Neil Fradenburgh]

Hi all.  Long time peeper; this is my first post, so a short intro might be appropriate.  I live on a tiny island in the Caribbean and tried to learn as much guitar tech as I could before arriving.  Resources are very limited, or outrageously expensive, or both.  I work on my own guitars and friends guitars, up to my level of comfort/ability.  At this point I would have to describe it as a hobby, since I have not made a singe $ doing it.  Maybe that would actually put me close to a real luthier without a business clue?

I am working on a 1980 G&L bass.  Solid maple neck. Skunk stripe, bullet nut at the neck.  The truss rod will not adjust out the bow in the neck.  It seems to be working properly, but runs out of thread before I can flatten the neck.  The neck will go to the correct shape via the Erlewine clamping method.  The normal solution would be to try adding washers under the nut.  However, this nut and the access hole are very small diameter.  It appears to have a tube that encases the rod that the nut contacts?  Can I use a short sleeve 3/16 ID & 3/8 OD?  Any clues would be very helpful.  Thanks in advance.

Neil

[Neil Fradenburgh]

please?

[Neil Fradenburgh]

Anybody help me out here?  I realize Leo Fender was a pretty obscure designer, but someone must have experience with his instruments?  The question here is:  how can there be enough bearing surface at the top of the neck?  The access hole is the same size as the bullet nut on the end of the truss rod.  Is there a captive washer placed during the back-of-the-neck install? Or, is there a sleeve around the rod itself.  Little help here...please, and thank you.  Sorry, I do not have bass in hand for pictures at the moment.

[Jeff Highland]

I don't know and apparently no one else here does.

You are not being ignored.

G&L's are a bit different to standard fender practice

Perhaps there is a G&L forum yoou could ask at?

[Neil Fradenburgh]

Thanks Jeff.  There is a forum that I searched extensively with no real answer.  It now does not play well with my computer; trying to link to it takes forever or longer.  I know there is a huge amount of knowledge here, so my hopes are high that someone can tell me what's in the headstock end without conducting surgery.

Respect...Neil

[chris snyder]

Neil, it sounds like you got a bull in a china shop. Most people think the bull will knock over every thing, when the bull realy is like us, they dont want to disturb their surroundings.

[Phil Keener]

Neil,

Go to this website:

http://www.guitarsbyleo.com/GALLERY2/main.php?g2_itemId=97&g2_n...

You might find the info you seek. Be sure to look at the complete site.

Best Regards,

Phil

[Neil Fradenburgh]

That's it!  Thank you.  I thought I had been everywhere on that site...

The adjustment end on the neck is pretty standard washer and nut.  The difference is that there is a "finishing sleeve" in the headstock capturing the washer.  This sleeve has the same inside diameter as the OD of the "bullet" style nut, so does not allow additional washers when the wood becomes too compressed for further adjustment.

Looks like my options are:

a) remove the sleeve to add washer(s)

b) find/make a spacer the same dimension as the nut and bore out the center to slide over the rod.

Thoughts or suggestions welcome.