Hi everyone,
trusting that you are all fine and dealing well with the current weirdness.
My shop is back open regular hours: 1.00pm - 5.00pm Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. You are welcome to drop by at any of those times. I will be observing advised space and distance protocols.
I will continue to post stuff on this journal page that should be of interest.
Over the last month or so I have seen four American Fender Strats that have had wrecked truss-rod nuts. In the previous 30 years or more I have seen this a few times, but 4 in a month is a bit of a pandemic (please excuse the term).
Here's the thing: USA-made Fenders use a truss-rod nut that is adjustable with a 1/8" allen key (American Fenders are made to "imperial" measurements). Many Asian-made guitars use metric allen keys to adjust various components. Most Asian truss-rods are either 4mm or 5mm, but some early Chinese Squiers use the same 3/16" truss rod as Mexican Fenders do.
Floyd Rose lock-nuts and bridges use a 3mm key, and these are plentiful. Imperial tools are a little harder to find in dear old Metric Australia.
Using a 3mm key in a 1/8" truss rod will wreck the truss rod nut. 1/8" is approximately 3.2mm, and will "almost" fit . But the tiny difference means that using a 3mm key in a 1/8"" nut will round-over the edges of the nut and render it un-useable.
Have these guitars with wrecked truss-rod nuts been "adjusted" by folk in isolation/lockdown who
just wanted their guitars to play better and didn't know the difference
between the imperial and metric measurements? Good question.
In the 1970s, when Australia converted to metric, it became illegal for a short while to make or sell items or tools graduated in Imperial measurements! After a brief review, Mr.Fraser's government realised that Australia's entire manufacturing industry was based on imperial measurements, and they repealed that law!
For many years afterwards (and in some cases still) the metric-measured things that you bought were still manufactured in Imperial measurements and sold as "metric". The 6mm dowel that you bought from Mitre 10 was actually 1/4" dowel. There was no point in completely re-tooling every manufacturing industry, so they all basically fudged the numbers a bit! Even now if you buy a sheet of Melamine chipboard from Bunnings, it will be sold as 1200 x 600mm but is actually 4 foot x 2 foot!
So.
Some metric measurements are very close to the imperial ones, but NONE are close enough that the wrong toll will work.
If you fit a 3mm key in a 1/8" USA Fender truss-rod nut it will feel almost "right". But if you try to tighten the truss-rod (which is under tension) you will round over the truss-rod nut and wreck it. This immediately ruins the shape of the nut and prevents any further adjustments. I'm pretty sure that this has been the cause of these recent Fender truss-rod problems that I have been tasked with.
I'm guessing that the recent spate of 1/8" versus 3mm problems have arised because more people have been trying to do DIY fixes at home.
Golden Rule is that if you're not absolutely 100% sure what you're doing, then don't do it!
Very soon I will post a journal entry explaining and simplifying the imperial measurement system. When clearly explained and understood, it is much simpler and more accurate than the metric system!
