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Continuing our Guitar 101 voyage of discovery around the guitar, we’re staying with the neck and contemplating the truss-rod.
What the hell is a truss rod anyway?
At it’s simplest, a truss rod is a device to counteract the tension of the strings. We’ll get on to looking at the different types of truss rod in a minute or two but first, lets look a little deeper into that explanation.
The strings on your guitar or bass, when tuned up to pitch, exert a lot of pressure. It’s a tall order …

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Today, in Guitar 101, we’re looking at the guitar neck.  And, this time, we’re taking considering scale length and string compensation.
Scale length
Scale length is, effectively, the ‘sounding’ length of the string – i.e. the bit that actually ‘sounds’ (or vibrates – it’s the same thing) when plucked.  This means that we’re only considering the length of string between the nut and saddle (see our article on Guitar Anatomy if you need a refresher on these terms).

Some of the common scale lengths of popular guitars and basses are:

Many Gibson Guitars, Les Paul, SG, …