LeftyBassist.com

http://cgi.ebay.com/RARE-LEFT-1979-GREC ... 500wt_1089

Looks cool. Aren't these copies supposed to be pretty decent?

Saw this too and I have bought other stuff from Tom, some have been real nice, others not so much. But he's usually pretty honest in describing what he's selling-- so when I read this I knew I was gonna have to pass this one up:

"THE ACTION IS PRETTY LOW BUT I WOULD NOT SAY REAL LOW . I HAD TO MAX OUT THE TRUSS ROD ADJUSMENT TO GET THE NECK REASONABLY STRAIGHT. I LIKE GETTING THE ACTION LIKE A GUITAR BUT I CANT ON THIS BASS. SINCE THE TRUSS ROD IS MAXED OUT I HAVE TO SELL IT AS IS NO RETURNS AND NO CRY BABIES SAYING THEY NEED A PARTIAL REFUND"....

My read of that is that if it really played well he'd probably be keeping it.

+1. Agreed.

Maybe i'm wrong but i know the story that Greco luthiers went to Fender Japan after the creation of the Squier brand, so i guess that the bass is top quality ... beside the neck thing of course

if it's only a maxed trussrod, it's an easy and common fix to restore adjustability ...

- remove the neck (assuming this is a heel adjust neck)
- loosen the trussrod adjustment nut until it comes off
- lubricate the trussrod threads (rod and nut)
- install several flat washers that have an inner diameter that fits over the trussrod and an outer diameter that fits down into the hole (these are available if you know where to look)
- reinstall the trussrod nut
- reinstall the neck
- adjust the trussrod to perfection (if you need more adjustment, follow the process to add a couple more washers)


this fix had been performend on thousands upon thousands of necks the past decades - your neck may have this fix and you may not even know it

the usual reason that a trussrod maxes out is that you reach the end of cut threads (or length inside the nut) before finding the amout of relief you're shooting for. this usually happens because the nut rests directly on the wood, and over time this wood compresses resulting in less adjustment travel before bottoming out. the washers serve to compensate for this compression and restore the amount of threads available for adjusting the nut. adding these washers is not modifying the neck in any way when executed properly

all the best,

R

Rodent, I have applied the old "washer trick" technique myself on several occasions (it was taught to me by my luthier several years ago). You're right that this works in a lot of cases-- but definitely not always. I've run into more than a few old basses with a case of "neck sag" that the "washer trick" couldn't cure- where the neck has been bowed for a long while, and the rod just isn't strong enough to maintain the neck straightness when the strings are tensioned, regardless of the amount of threads available for adjusting the nut...

for this latter case, have you ever tried using a clamp set-up to apply backbow for a week or two? essentially it would be

- remove neck and trussrod nut
- cut a shim to gently bow the neck backwards over, then clamp near the nut and heel
- secure in this position for a week or three
- install washers into trussrod nut slot, lube trussrod and nut threads, reinstall nut
- reinstall neck
- adjust trussrod

the idea here is not to bend the neck to an extreme so that you cause damage, but to help remove some of the upwards bow and set this into the wood so that the trussrod isn't overhwelmed when string tension is reapplied

I don't have images, and have never had to do this personally ... but I've seen it done one time before as a drastic step towards correcting a neck that had been left in poor health by a player who didn't know how to keep his bass set-up properly. I was told that a heat lamp could be used in severe cases ... hopefully I'll never have to do this on a client's garage sale find

all the best,

R