Replacing a stripped truss rod nut

[zaphod303]

Hi - I stupidly stripped the truss rod nut on my late 90's JV-09 and just completed replacement.  Sharing my experience here in hopes of assisting others.  When I realized what I had done, I first took it to Paul Iverson a former Larrivee luthier who now operates out of Tom Lee music in North Vancouver, BC.  Paul is super helpful, persistent and knowledgeable but he was unable to remove the nut and suggested I contact Larrivee directly. 

Larrivee support team was also super responsive and helpful.  They quickly sent me a replacement nut and matching truss rod wrench.  Both were inexpensive.  For liability reasons, they understandably declined to offered advice on the replacement procedure.

I purchased a "Gripper" truss rod nut extractor wrench from Stew Mac.  Also inexpensive and highly recommended if you have a dicey truss rod nut.  It's the same size and J-shape as the stock truss rod but it has a harder steel bit which is slightly flared to insert more tightly into the nut.  The wrench worked beautifully and I simply unscrewed the old nut and put the new one on. Voila! 

I expect I will now need to progressively and incrementally tighten the truss rod to achieve the right degree of relief and will do so in quarter-turns over the new few weeks. So far so good.   

[mike in lytle]

Amazing post, and super informative. Thanks.
And you supplied a photo from a donut shop in Denver, but you took the guitar to North Vancouver BC?
You get around.
Mike

[zaphod303]

Thx for the kind comment.  Yes, getting around a bit recently.  Just moved (back) to Denver from BC.