Dear Fenderistas,
I'm a bit exasperated as I had to bring Edith's wonderful present of a Candy Cola American Standard Jazz back to the shop - barely four months old, the truss rod adjustment hex socket has already become stubborn (or even frozen) to a point where the ball point hex allen wrench gouges the socket (not to mention the dents it leaves on the pickguard where the cavity is as you need so much brute force to turn it). Realizing that it wouldn't be long until the socket screw will break off the rod, I returned it for guaranty work with a heavy heart and asked for what wll most likely be a replacement neck. The shopowner understood and said it wasn't the first time either.
What is it with me and Fenders? I've owned four Fenders in my life, two from the US, one from Japan and one from Mexico. One broke off (US), one froze (US, the one just returned), one is stubborn and pretty much at the end of how far it can go (Mex) and one is just stubborn but at this point still works (J). I admit to being a neck adjustment obsessive and stickler - that a bass has its neck adjusted four times a year (every season basically) is not unheard of with me. Is it that there is no such thing as an easy-to-turn Fender adjustment screw because the necks pull so hard? Do you have to be The Incredible Hulk to turn them? I have no Gibson where you have to fight the wood as much, I have Yamaha basses where the adjustment screw turns so smoothly you can turn it with your hand (and it still adjusts the neck I hasten to add) and on my Musicmans, which have maple necks too, the adjustment wheels turn easily and smoothly as well. With Fender its always "turn-crunch-click-take breath-turn-readjust tool-turn-crunch-click-take breath-readjust tool" etc. Or is the slanted access via a ballpoint hex key not really a serious recommendation and you are still expected to take off the pg with its dozen screws
to get sensible access to the adjustment socket screw (whose shallow depth even then still raises worries)?
From a trussrod adjustment screw, be it wheel, socket, slotted or bell, I expect in 2010/11 that it turns smoothly, without you really needing to exert force/torque, without it creating weird noises, clicking or jumping in intervals, without strings needed to be removed, necks pre-bent manually, pick guards taken off for better access etc.
I take it that this is just simply unobtainable from the world's inventor of the electric bass, ja?, and you guys have simply gotten used to it?
