Fig 2 After I received the bass, Wallace informed me that he had glued the trussrod adjusting nut (barrel nut) onto the end of the rod with Gorilla Glue. He quickly realized he had only added to the problem. Notice the hand-penciled date on the end of the neck.

Fig 3 In an attempt to break the glue joint, I used a propane torch to heat the tip of a flat-blade screwdriver, which I pushed into a slot in the barrel nut to heat the glue. Then I grabbed the hot blade with a wrench to increase my turning power. After 20 minutes of repeated and careful applications of heat, the nut came free and I was able to back it out.

Fig 4 I spent another half-hour using heated dental probes to remove the Gorilla Glue from the sides and bottom of the hole. With the glue removed, I probed the threads on the end of the trussrod to feel their condition. I was thrilled to find that the threads felt perfectly normal—and so were the barrel nut’s interior threads. Nothing was wrong with either part! I realized that Wallace is a player, not a tech.

Needless to say, Wallace was as happy as I was—especially after I “helped” the neck to adjust, by clamping it into a slight backbow with the trussrod loose, and then tightening the nut. (I know I constantly preach this adjustment technique, but I can’t stress enough how well it works.) The neck adjusted perfectly straight!

At Wallace’s urging, I refretted the neck. With the exception of the last few frets over the body, the original frets were worn as low as I’ve seen.

Fig 5 On vintage Fender necks, up until 1982, Fender installed frets by sliding them in sideways—from the E-string side to the G-string side. After heating each fret with a soldering iron, I drove out the frets sideways with a sharp awl, going in the same direction that they were installed.

Fig 6 This left very clean fret slots and no chips in the fingerboard. When removing “sideways” frets, you can chip the fingerboard if you pull the frets upward, as opposed to sliding them out. Because the frets were not pressed or hammered in from above in the first place, pulling them up would cause the barbs on the fret tangs to chip the fingerboard.

With new frets and a new nut made of bone, this killer bass was good to go!