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I need some perspective,

I've got an 80's Japanese Tele Custom reissue in for a setup. The truss rod adjuster is at the heel of the neck. The fret board is a gong show of divots and flat spots and the relief measures over .035". Pulling the neck off and checking to see how the truss rod moves, the nut is totally loose, which explains the huge amount of relief, however as I tighten the nut it tightens up pretty quickly.

In fact after screwing it as tight as I can get it, my notched straightedge shows the fret board to be pretty flat. The fret plane is still an adventure, there is still relief on the low E, but the high E has negative relief. So it seems I can dress this out and it will come out fine, but having the truss rod as tight as it will go seems like it doesn't leave much wiggle room for the future. But maybe this is just typical of older single action rods? I don't have as much experience with these kinds of rods.

It just depends. I've had that happen on Fenders and Gibsons. I chalk it up to variances in installation procedures. I've found (as have others), that torqueing the truss rod back and forth from one extreme to the other sometimes loosens things up a bit. Your experiences may vary. Remember to let the truss rod sit for awhile, as the wood moves slower than the metal. I oftentimes let the neck sit overnight if the client isn't in a big rush.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

bend the neck back by hand over a sandbag or something while tightening the nut and you will be able to pull more out of it.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Forgot to mention that trick. Good one, Mr. Howard!!!!

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

This. I use a long sanding beam with shims on the ends of the fretboard and add a few clamps in the middle. Let it sit for a while and then you can tighten the rod to hold it in an appropriate amount of overbow.

When the nut gets super tight real quickly, it may be bottoming out on the threads. If that is the issue, it is easy to fix by adding a thick washer under the nut.

This is way more elegant. Here I was all set to put the neck on the sandbag, one foot on the headstock and the other on the heel...

I was wondering about that too. Dan Erlewine talks about that in one of his trade secrets videos. Its harder for me to tell with the adjuster in the heel than on a Gibson style rod, but I can see through the phillips crosshairs (?) in the nut that there is still quite a bit of thread.

Funny, I was just asking about how frequently twisted necks come up a week or so ago.

After sleeping on it, and leaving the neck under tension over night trying to get it flat as Chris suggested then using the tricks mentioned above I can get it to read flat on the bass side, but when it reads flat there I end up with significant back bow on the treble side. Sighting down the neck from the heel I now see there is definitely a twist. I've got a lot of meat on the frets still, so I'll leave the neck at midway (slight relief on the bass side and pretty flat on the treble side) so as not to leave it cranked as hard as it will go and level and dress the frets. We can deal with the twist when its time for a re-fret.

Yeah - doesn't have to be perfectly flat for you to make it playable. In the past, I have put some bow on the bass side by milling off more fret height. I think you got this.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Also doesn't hurt to leave a bit more relief on the bass side then on the treble side. In fact that is the way I was taught and is how I do all of them.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

True, but sometimes the guitar has other ideas.

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

No argument there.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"