gibson hummingbird truss rod scare

t_ebrontosaurus

New member
for the past two weeks Ive come to grips with my neck slowly bending in and losing intonation between frets. At first i was confused and it just gave me this gut feeling everytime i looked at it. but ive been reading about truss rod adjustments and been gaining hope. i switched from medium lights to lights to try to stop the bending but it was to no prevail. The bend is quite significant I think... its action has become that of my roomates old yamaha.

but i still have this fear... im bringing it in this week to have it adjusted.

right now shes detuned and laying in my case.
should i be worrying so much? ...shes my baby.

thanks,
noah
 
I don't know about New Hampshire, but up here the weather has been getting much worse for the last couple of weeks. It is common for a guitar to move when the weather changes, and I've seen some Gibsons (usually maple necked, but mahogany too) that move a LOT from season to season.



Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Some humidification wouldn't hurt. As cold as it is right now the humidity is probably below 20%. Guitars don't like that.
 
c7sus said:
Some humidification wouldn't hurt. As cold as it is right now the humidity is probably below 20%. Guitars don't like that.


Yup, though it is probably not what is causing the issue with the neck.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
c7sus said:
Some humidification wouldn't hurt. As cold as it is right now the humidity is probably below 20%. Guitars don't like that.
at first i had a humidifier in the case around the beginning of winter, and thats when it started to bend. I thought it may be that so i took it out and it just kept getting worse and worse.

im bringing it in tomorrow
and thanks for the help -

noah
 
From my experience when an acoustic guitar gets too dry the action lowers because the top of the guitar begins to "sink". If the action is getting higher then it may be time for a neck reset because the angle of the neck has changed in relation to the plane of guitars body. A reputable guitar tech can tell you whats really happening but this is a condition I have seen in older Gibson acoustics. In many cases the fix has been just to shave down the bridge and while this will lower the action it does change the tone of the guitar.
 
t_ebrontosaurus said:
at first i had a humidifier in the case around the beginning of winter, and thats when it started to bend. I thought it may be that so i took it out and it just kept getting worse and worse.

im bringing it in tomorrow
and thanks for the help -

noah


PUT THAT HUMIDIFIER BACK IN!!!!!


Seriously, there is nothing weather related which will destroy your guitar faster or more surely than not humidifying it.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Steelguy said:
In many cases the fix has been just to shave down the bridge and while this will lower the action it does change the tone of the guitar.


NO reputable guitar tech would shave down a bridge anymore. The saddle, yes, but shaving bridges is in the category of Things Not To Do To A Valuable Guitar these days. We thought differently in the seventies, but these days we can do a neck reset relatively easily, which preserves the guitars original geometry and also the originality of the bridge (and hence, the guitar). It's a really bad repair which doesn't do anything to address the issue at hand. It also has nothing to do with the OP's issue.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Light said:
I don't know about New Hampshire, but up here the weather has been getting much worse for the last couple of weeks. It is common for a guitar to move when the weather changes, and I've seen some Gibsons (usually maple necked, but mahogany too) that move a LOT from season to season.

thanks for the information. it makes me sit a bit easier - im excited to have it back to normal and to get rid of the problem

thanks again,
noah
 
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