Originally posted by trendkillahI rarely (like pretty much never) need to tweak the truss rod at all. If I'm changing the string gauge, the nut slots and the bridge saddles will need to be adjusted as well, so I pass my axe over to my favourite tech. It has to be done right, and I know my limitations (well some of em, anyways).
Can someone please explain to me why exactly you should not adjust the truss rod with the strings still on the guitar(at full tension except for the ones in the middle obviously)?
If you really feel that you must do it yourself, you should make the adjustment with the strings [u]in place, and tuned to proper pitch[/u]! You have a snowball's chance in Hell of getting it right, without having the strings on the guitar, to show how much the neck bow has changed in response to your adjustment. Tweak it just a little bit at a time, and play the guitar for an hour or so between adjustments, to allow the change in truss rod tension to be distributed evenly along the rod.
Well-intentioned, but misguided, fooling around with the truss rod can trash an otherwise perfectly good guitar. Proceed with caution!