How to Examine The Truss Rod of a Used Guitar

Video Transcript

"KIP BRADFORD: Hi, my name's Kip and I'm here on behalf of Expert Village. In this clip, we're going to take a look at our acoustic guitar to see if it has a truss rod. Now, you'll find the classical guitars or guitars that are supposed to have nylon strings do not typically have truss rod. Sometimes, you'll find them, but not very often. And you'll also sometimes find guitars that are supposed to have steel strings without a truss rod. If you find one, it's supposed to have a steel strings and does not have a truss rod, avoid it unless it's collectible or vintage, because the truss rod is essential to make that instrument playable. If it is missing and the action of the instrument is wrong which it probably will be, there's nothing you can do about it. Now, the next thing we're going to want to do while we're looking around inside of our sound board is take a look under the edge where the neck and the fret board comes to the edge of the sound hole and see if there's a little metallic screw here. The only one's that I'm familiar with that you won't find one here that does have one and you won't find one at the other end, we'll show you are the [SOUNDS LIKE] larvae's. They're actually down underneath this, and there's a special tool to get to it, but if it's a larvae and it's cheap buy it, because that's a great instrument. But that truss rod is there to counter the tension that is put on the neck by the strings and this is what we use to create the relief of the neck, which is key to making sure that your instrument is playable. If you don't see one here, then you want to take a look at the headstock portion here. If there's a plastic cap like this Banjo has, then you can be sure there's a truss rod adjustment nut under here."