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Hi, Just a quick question (I read this):
quot;As you tighten the truss rod the neck will flatten and give you lower action, and if you loosen the truss rod your neck will give you more relief, raising the action.quot;
Is this true? I thought it went the other way around. In short, if I want a lower action should I tighten or loosen the truss rod? Bob

If you want quot;lower actionquot; you will want to tighten the trussrod. When you loosen the nut, it allows the strings to pull more on the neck giving it more relief. Trussrod adjustment is not really the way to set action. It is more for adjusting the straightness of the neck. Saddle/bridge height is how you want to set the action.

yeah, preferrably set the rod with some slight relief-most guitars were designed for a slight relief. Once you got it where it feels good, set that action to taste-i like mine high!

It might be useful to think of neck relief (bow) and action as two separate parameters.
In general, folks will first adjust the neck relief with the truss rod. An easy way to judge neck relief is to fret the string at the first and last frets and check the clearance at the 8th or 9th fret. In general, folks will have enough relief to fit a business card between the string and the top of the 9th fret.
After you have your neck relief adjusted, adjust the bridge to dial in the action to your taste.


Originally Posted by big_blackIf you want quot;lower actionquot; you will want to tighten the trussrod.

And be careful not to overtighten, or you will have backbow.
Also, you must first loosen the rod before you tighten it!
And tighten it in very small increments ... like 1/8 of a turn, let the neck set, check the action, and then continue. Ideally, you would want the neck to set overnight between truss rod adjustments.