Help! Lower tunings: more or less relief?

[ThatsAgood1jay]

Hey guys, i am tuning one of my petrucci's down to DADFAD so i can play around with some Opeth, and i was wondering what sort of truss rod adjustment i would need to make to hold the action?.

 

[73h Nils]

You're going to need more than a simple truss rod adjustment to hold that tuning. You're going to need to adjust the bridge and all that fun stuff, too.

You could look into getting a tremol-no and read the faq on the MM website. I don't really know specifics for setting up guitars, because I've never really had to mess with mine.

 

[ThatsAgood1jay]

You're going to need more than a simple truss rod adjustment to hold that tuning. You're going to need to adjust the bridge and all that fun stuff, too.

You could look into getting a tremol-no and read the faq on the MM website. I don't really know specifics for setting up guitars, because I've never really had to mess with mine.

I already have the bridge all set up, but was wondering if the truss rod would need to be tuned.

 

[TNT]

Yeah, normally it does if you plan to keep it that way for a while. You'll see the neck begin to bow a little more than usual, so you may have to straigten it a tad.

However, you need to be sure you have the bridge adjusted accordingly too, as mentioned already. And, you may have to . . . . "tweak, repeat, tweak, repeat,. . . . . etc. . ., several times to get it dialed in.

 

[shredhed]

Yeah, normally it does if you plan to keep it that way for a while. You'll see the neck begin to bow a little more than usual, so you may have to straigten it a tad.QUOTE]

Actually it will flatten out from the lesser tension

 

[TNT]

thanks Shred, whoops, I knew what I mean't. too much of a hurry to get to the "straighten out" part.

Yes, it's a diverging meniscus rather than a converging meniscus. Hope I spelled it right too.

 

[shredhed]

thanks Shred, whoops, I knew what I mean't. too much of a hurry to get to the "straighten out" part.

Yes, it's a diverging meniscus rather than a converging meniscus. Hope I spelled it right too.

Haha,
But I thought a meniscus was a tissue pad in my knee - lol

 

[Trent]

When one of my students sets up a guitar for low tune we
1. put on heavier set of strings
2. do a complete set up (adjust the neck, string height and intonation)
3. recheck the action and neck adjust a week or so out just to be sure
it settles in right.
I am not sure that you could short cut any of this.

 

[shredhed]

When one of my students sets up a guitar for low tune we
1. put on heavier set of strings
2. do a complete set up (adjust the neck, string height and intonation)
3. recheck the action and neck adjust a week or so out just to be sure
it settles in right.
I am not sure that you could short cut any of this.

Good call on the recheck a week later. Those neck adjustments take time to settle