Stuck Truss Rod

[eboy87]

Ok, so please don't throw any veggies at me for this, but I've got an Epiphone (FT 160 I believe) 12-string acoustic on my workbench right now. This thing hasn't seen the light of day since the mid '70's. Unfortunatley, when it was stored, they left tension on the strings. Anyway, the neck is slightly caddywompus. It's not too severe, but it is noticable. There doesn't appear to be any damage to the neck joint, and what damage there is is purely cosmetic. I'm thinking it is a truss rod issue. If I tighten it a bit, I'm sure the neck will come back down where it belongs.

Now, for my question, the nut at the end of the rod itself is a little tight (as it should be, since it hasn't been changed for quite some time). Does lefty loosey, righty tighty still apply? I realize this probably is one of those "if you have to ask; don't" questions, but then there's no room for improvement. It's such a nice guitar that I'd hate to see it languish away in the closet. Any help (suggestions, questions, comments, hypothesises) would be greatly appreciated.

[Ripper]

hey eboy...
Any truss rod ive touched has always been counterclockwise loosens, clockwise tightens.

Remember only loosen or tighten exactly what you need. Dont over-do it. Just a small quarter turn will be a big adjustment. Mark the truss bolt with a marker at the top, so youll know where you started from.

Good luck!

[mlrpa]

No arguements on what deepblue said, but I suggest also pouring a little lemon oil down the truss rod. I've had some great success with necks that I thought were beyond hope.

[darguitar]

Normally, when I have a tight truss rod nut that wont budge; the 1st thing I do is remove the nut(lefty loosy as you said) Secondly, apply some vaseline or similair lubricant to the face of the nut and the internal screwthread. I would then replace it and tighten it up to see if you can get the neck straight. If this doesn't work, there are a couple of solutions you could try.
1) You could try clamping the neck into a backbow whilst the truss rod is loose, and then tighten it up, giving the truss rod nut less work to do.(Dan Erlewine recommends this process)
or
2)You could remove the truss rod nut, and source/make some washers to fit over the threaded portion of the rod, then replace the nut and tighten. This always seems to work for me. It gives the nut a bit more 'bite' when tightening
Good Luck!!