MIMF

My friend's Washburn B20-8 bass is in need of a truss rod adjustment and general set up. I went to adjust the truss rod and it appears to be missing the nut to make the adjustments. I contacted Washburn. They told me I needed a metric thread nut and I should be able to find it at Stew Mac. I wasn't sure which type of nut I needed so I sent Stew Mac an email. They said they didn't have the type I needed and suggested I check with the knowledgeable folks here at the MIMF. Does anyone know what type of nut I need and where I might find one? I've attached a pic. Apologies for my lack of photography skills.

Clicking on the photo and seeing it in another browser page is somewhat instructive as it allows you to gain a bit of perspective and it also flips it right side up.
There's a bunch of debris that needs to come out from under the rod. The most likely threads would be M5x0.8 or M6x1. You should try to check the rod's o.d. with a caliper and also see how much of the rod is exposed so that you can get one that's long enough to give you some room for adjustment. Lastly you need to figure how big in diameter the nut can be and still fit in the hole. I don't know of any metric truss rod nuts for sale anywhere but making a new one is pretty quickly done.

Ha I spoke too soon here is a nice compliment of metric truss rod nuts for sale somewhere in Europe:
http://shop.rall-online.net/Hardware-/- ... s-rod-nuts
And that would be in Peissenberg, GERMANY

Thanks David. You've been extremely helpful. Hopefully one of these will be what I'm looking for. And hopefully it doesn't cost too much to ship to the states from Germany.

Brandon, email me if you can figure out the dimensions you need and I can turn one out on my lathe in no time.

I could be wrong but it looks like the rod is snapped off. I hope not. I don't see any threads. Having worked in metallurgy for many years it looks like a break.

Daryl, that would certainly explain the missing nut but I think I do see threads and also see what look like grinder marks or metal sheer marks across the face. If it had busted off it would be a good excuse to rethread it to a conventional thread but that takes some specialized equipment that I'm not sure exists yet.

I have gone with many people buying instruments. One of the big things to look at on my list is inspection of the truss rod. I have the seller remove the truss rod cover so that I can inspect it. A number of times I find broken, striped, or bottomed out adjustments. If the seller is unwilling to do that we move on. Instruments are like used cars, the buyer needs to do his/her homework or will get stuck.

You won't like the price, but StewMac has a tool to cut new threads on a broken truss rod in place.
http://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tools/To ... e_Kit.html

That tool has got to be a lot cheaper than replacing the truss rod.

I made my own version of the SM tool which works great. The problem with them is that they can't turn a 6mm rod down to a 3/16" rod while inside a neck.

The rod does not look broken to me. But Brandon can make that determination by viewing (or photographing) the rod from the side. If there is sufficient threaded length accessible for a nut, then a nut is all that is needed.