Truss rod help, setting relief.

markj

Got a Fender road worn telecaster and I'm having a bit of trouble setting the relief. I have adjusted the truss rod to give me 10 thou relief on the 7 th fret. The guitar plays superbly then a few hours later the relief has increased slightly. I've done this a couple of times and the same thing is happening. I'm used to setting up my guitars and tweaking the truss rods so I'm not a beginner at this. Any advice from a guitar tech would be more than welcome

ICBM

I had a USA Standard Tele just like that back in the 90s. At first it was like yours, then after a while it needed adjusting less often, then finally after more than a year it just suddenly stopped moving one day and was rock-solid ever after. I can only assume the wood was compressing, drying out or some other thing.

steamabacus

It doesn't always take a year though.

I've set up a few guitars that took a week or two to settle down but were solid enough thereafter.

markj

The truss rod is showing resistance, so I think it's doing something. The truss rod has had over a turn so was quite concerned.

ICBM

steamabacus said:

It doesn't always take a year though.

I know, and I did begin to think there was something wrong with my Tele!

To be fair, the frequency of adjustment did drop quite quickly, but it never really got stable until it suddenly did, which was almost a surprise by that point.

Sarge

I've had one do this too, I put a mark on the tr nut to see if the nut itself was rotating back, it wasn't. And like the others above it settled down after a couple of weeks, it had been unstrung over a year before though.