MzI Posted December 27, 2004 Report Share Posted December 27, 2004 Im working on a new neck thru strat, and im at the point where i have to drill the access hole to the truss rod. Im using a strat style headstock flat no angle, hot rod truss rod. My problem is I have no clue as to how to go about putting this hole in for the allen wrench, the only thing I could think of is to just create a slot vs drilling a hole tell me what ya think also heres 2 pictures for visualtion purposes MzI picture 1 picture 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curtis P Posted December 27, 2004 Report Share Posted December 27, 2004 Hey MzI If it was me, i would just route the slot to the headstock, and put a cover on it But, thats just me Curtis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MzI Posted December 27, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 27, 2004 thanx curtis, im just gonna extend the slot and just leave the hole open underneathe the nut, as for what i learned from building this guitar, i have now decided how much more i hate the fender headstock and im not gonna build anymore, so yea ill post so pics in the progress section when i get a chance MzI Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PerryL Posted December 27, 2004 Report Share Posted December 27, 2004 (edited) Think about your options first and do the actual cutting/Drilling AFTER you Are Sure that is how you want it. Also, Make sure that the truss rod nut is put in the slot correctly. It looks like the nut is on top as opposed to the bottom where I think It Belongs. You may wanna check with the directions on the website or ask someone here that's used to installing HotRod Truss rods. I think you'd be happier with a nice hole drilled thru the wood instead of slotting to the headstock. Again, That's just personal opinion, And you know what those are like. Also, The headstock has a curve to it and that would be hard to fasten a cover to, since pickguard plastic is fairly thick, it would resist curving how you want it to be. Edited December 27, 2004 by PerryL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guitarfrenzy Posted December 27, 2004 Report Share Posted December 27, 2004 This is the way we do a strat style neck using a drill press. It's not that hard once you get the angle correct. Practice on scrap piece of wood first to see if the angle isn't so bad that you can't adjust the truss. It's just a more professional looking result in my opinion. Even though most has forgotten that my website exist, you can read about the method we used by clicking on the link below. Making Of A Strat (page 2) Good luck Matt Vinson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MzI Posted December 28, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2004 thanx guys, im not actually using a truss rod cover like the fender style. I have actually installed a hot rod before, but it was using a headstock angle which seems to be far easier. I tried putting the truss rod in with the adjustment on the bottom but its so far into the headstock that its actually below the plain on the face of the headstock ill look into it more tho as i can put off glueing the fretboard on for another night MzI Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PerryL Posted December 28, 2004 Report Share Posted December 28, 2004 (edited) On the StewMac Website they show the truss rod being installed with the adjusting Nut on the bottom, with the access to the Adjustment nut at the heel end of the neck. If it were me, I'd follow the directions above on GuitarFrenzy's website OR drill your access hole at the heel. That way you can have the clean headstock and ease of drilling. Edited December 28, 2004 by PerryL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guitarfrenzy Posted December 28, 2004 Report Share Posted December 28, 2004 thanx guys, im not actually using a truss rod cover like the fender style. I have actually installed a hot rod before, but it was using a headstock angle which seems to be far easier. I tried putting the truss rod in with the adjustment on the bottom but its so far into the headstock that its actually below the plain on the face of the headstock ill look into it more tho as i can put off glueing the fretboard on for another night MzI Fender uses a hollow plastic piece on most of their truss rod holes for decorative effect, but the don't use a cover like a Les Paul. We didn't use one on the one we built but it's really simple to do. Speaking of the Hot Rod Truss, six months ago when we was making the first Fender style neck we came across this same problem, since all the others I had did before was with an angled headstock you could very easily just route out the truss rod slot all the way down the neck. But on the Strat with no headstock angle, we ran into this problem where if the truss slot was cut all the way down the neck into the headstock, then after the headstock was cut to the proper size like below you'd run into problems. The truss slot would still show since it was cut deeper, and also after the truss was installed it couldn't be adjusted correctly (thank god we practiced on scrap first.. lol). So I called Stew Mac and asked them, the head tech was stumped, he said that we'd have to install it so that the truss would adjust at the end of the neck, or turn the truss rod adjustment upside down so that it can be adjusted from the headstock. I didn't like either answer. First off, who really wants to have to unbolt the neck just to make minor adjustments to the truss? Secondly, if someone later down the road got the guitar would they know that the headstock adjustment worked backwards.. lol Both was big enough problems that we had to find a solution. Thus we practiced the drill press method and it worked great, so I called Stew Mac back and told the techs how we did it and maybe they could advise people that method next time someone asked .. lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MzI Posted December 28, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2004 awesome thanx for the info, im defintely gonna put the adjusting nut on the bottom and just drill an angled hole seems to be the easiest way, I also dont like having the adjustment nut at the heel i think its a horrible design, plus this guitar is a neck thru no messing around with those silly bolt ons, ill try and post some pictures of what i came up with later tonight MzI Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MzI Posted December 29, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2004 heres a lil follow up. I drilled a hole on an angle to the adjustment nut on the headstock end. All went well and it came out halfway decent. I ended up using a 12" long 1/4" drill bit with a hand drill. pictures of course Pic 1 pic 2 i did some other work too but i guess ill start a thread in the progress section to show that MzI Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guitarfrenzy Posted December 29, 2004 Report Share Posted December 29, 2004 Looking good!! Did you test the angle to see if it's not too much that you can't adjust it properly without binding? Also another thing to worry about is that your drill press stops at the correct point so that you don't accidently go farther in depth than the truss rod slot depth, it should just drill out to that point. But yours looks like it's gonna work just fine though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikbojerik Posted December 29, 2004 Report Share Posted December 29, 2004 Strat-style neck: after cutting out the front of the headstock (before sanding the curve at the nut), I rout my channel all the way to the nut, then (using the same fence/jig) switch to a round-nosed bit for the access. Adjust the height so that the tip of the bit finishes above the flat part of the headstock face. Then I sand the curve behind the nut. Very clean. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MzI Posted December 29, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2004 i actually didnt test the angle, i did use a small pilot bit to start then jumped up to the 1/4 bit so i wouldnt make a nice hole in my neck and screw it up, yes i know its the wrong way to do it but i did anyways MzI Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PerryL Posted December 30, 2004 Report Share Posted December 30, 2004 That looks fantastic! Coming along Very Nice. I do mine that way also, Just Go For It once you've palnned it out how you want it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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