Potential Truss Rod Nightmare

[stevejamsecono]

So I have a friend who's been setting up my guitars lately. He's pretty good (actually on here as Totally Wired Guitars, so he mostly does Fenders and somesuch). Anyway, I recently gave him my Yamaha SG and SL to set up. The SL has had some neck trouble lately so I wanted to see what he could do about it, when I got this photo from him:
part0 by Steve Bailey, on Flickr

So I don't know much about truss rods, but he said he'd never seen anything like this before and thought it seemed like a failed recovery fix for it. Any attempts to make it tighter seemed to just make the theaded part rise higher, so he was concerned to do it any further.

Sooo... anyone seen this before and could potentially report on it? Is my guitar screwed?

[stevejamsecono]

Whoops, I forgot the tech and setup section existed. Mods, feel free to move!

[kdanie]

Adding a spacer between the truss rod nut and neck is not unusual I hear but I see cracks going up from the truss rod through the neck and even the nut. It won't be an easy repair and likely more extensive than it appears.

ken

[Larry Mal]

Sorry, brother, but Ken has it.

[stevejamsecono]

Ugh. Time to dig deep into the wallet....

[Stereordinary]

Far as I can tell the spacer that was put on there is another nut. Which means that tightening the original nut will only but it up against the other nut further, risking all kinds of damage. I would remove both nuts install a proper spacer and go from there. That's besides the fact that the filler stip is coming up, but I think with a proper large-diameter washer on there, it might be ok.

[stevejamsecono]

Fingers crossed, dude. This guitar wasn't the most expensive guitar ever, but it was a game-changer for me and I'd hate to lose it

[hpr_hpr]

OK not an expert but here is what I see:
1. The fact that the treaded section comes out further when turning the nut indicate that it is working correctly and that the 6 sided flat thingy below is NOT another nut as then you would either not be able to tighten the top nut OR create space between the 2 nuts . . . try it on another bolt and you'll see. This is confirmed by the fact that the 6 sided spacer is off center with the nut . . . if it WERE a nut on the threads it would have to be centered . . . . THAT said it MAY be a nut that's not engaged on the threads and just used as a spacer, the six sidedness would tend to indicate that as generally spacers are round. The spacer may be something as common as a nut for a pot . . . trusrod = 1/4 threaded (probably?), opening in a pot nut is for 3/8 threaded so it would fit over without engaging the treads.
2. Unless that black line in the middle of the nut is made with the intention of denoting the center or something that may/is probably be a crack.
3. more concerning to me anyway is the fact that the center area next to the nut has a different color than the surrounding wood and seems to be elevated over the surrounding wood, AND seems to go down all the way to the trussrod channel . . . if this is indeed the case that is a previous 'repair' that has come 'unstuck' and the 'spacer' was put in to distribute the pressure from the truss rod as much as possible to the original structure/wood . . . this theory may be backed up by what may be epoxy squeeze around the 'spacer' . . . Anyway to get a good look at a minimum the truss rod needs to loosened all the way and then take a good look in the area behind the spacer to see if there ARE any cracks or if we are just looking at an artifact due to the way it was photographed . . . . then you should probably also have the nut replaced because the channel for that D string looks pretty worn . . . and there is that probable crack . . . which fits with the of the nut center being pushed up.

It sure looks like a new piece of wood was put in over the trussrod as far as at least the nut so if you take the nut off you may be able to see the join there . . . or if it goes all the way below the fretboard . . . .