mu_sound Posted May 9, 2005 Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 Hey there, I'm now just about done with the body on my double cutaway. I just bought a nice hunk of mahagony to make the neck out of. Before I get too far along with it I was wondering if I could get a little advice. I am using a hot rod dual action truss rod from Stew-mac. It has the 1/8" allen hex adjustment. It calls for a 7/32" wide channel in the neck. This being my first guitar I have a perhaps silly question....from most of the pictures of works in progress that I have seen, it looks like you route out the truss rod channel through the entire length of the neck, from about the nut all the way to the heel. It seems to me that if you do that there is nothing to prevent the truss rod from being pushed further into the cavity while making an adjustment. I know the instructions from stew-mac say to put a dab of silicone RTV to the end of the rod to keep it from rattleing, but I dont really trust RTV as a mechanical solution (to hold the truss rod in place securely). I thought perhaps of just routing out 17-18" worth of the neck so the truss rod doesn't have room to slide down, but I don't know if that is a bad idea. Am I worrying needlessly? Should there be solid wood under the nut & end of the fretboard? Any thoughts? My local high end wood supplier had pretty crappy selection of rosewood for fingerboards...a lot of pieces with kinks in the grain lines or splits, holes or other flaws. I am pondering using the fretboards sold by stew mac or LMI but I hate not being able to look through them and pick and choose. Anyone been pleased or diappointed by their stock? while I'm asking questions, I know this may be a better one to ask in electronics, but here goes anyway...Anyone know of suppliers that carry 5 position rotary switches (like the PRS style switch)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted May 9, 2005 Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 , it looks like you route out the truss rod channel through the entire length of the neck, from about the nut all the way to the heel. i don't know where you got that idea. of course you only make it the length of the rod Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mledbetter Posted May 9, 2005 Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 about the switch.. do a search in the electronics section.. i saw something about a month ago on that. a couple of the guys knew where to order them. And yes, on the truss rod, it's not the length of the neck.. the butt end of the truss rod should meet wood.. The only open end is the adjustment end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frank falbo Posted May 9, 2005 Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 Actually guys, if you wanted to be able to remove the truss rod at some point, one of Stew Mac's selling points is that you can slip it out of the neck. The rod stays put for a few reasons. First, because it'll have good tension on the collar blocks if the slot is cut relatively tight. But also because there's never really any longitudinal pressure applied. All the wrench pressure is in the direction of the rotation. I don't plan to replace my rods, so I stop the channel at the end of the rod, often chiseling it for a perfect squared off fit. You could finish off with a mortising bit if you wanted to I guess. Anyway I'm not saying it's the right idea, but I've seen the "continuous slot" thing around. I don't know where exactly, but I know it was Stew Mac literature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thedoctor Posted May 9, 2005 Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 Frank, haven't you ever had a trussrod fall out while you are working on a neck? It be WIERD!! The first time I ever saw what they call a "Martin-style" chanell rod was when one slid out of a neck I was resetting and it totally freaked me! I really didn't know what I was looking at. One of those "Oh,****" moments. Attn: MODS!! I put my own "*"s in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert_the_damned Posted May 9, 2005 Report Share Posted May 9, 2005 can't help with the wood working question. allparts do a 6 way rotary switch that looks like it'd do what you want though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fryovanni Posted May 10, 2005 Report Share Posted May 10, 2005 I don't route the entire length of the neck. Just the length from block to block, then drill from the headstock back to the routed channel to allow for the allen nut. Peace, Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mu_sound Posted May 10, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 10, 2005 Thanks for all of the advice. In answer to one of the replies above I got the crazy idea from both the instructions included with the truss rod and from a book I have on PRS guitars. The book shows a lot of necks in progress and you can clearly see how the channel runs the entire length of the neck. It just didn't make any sense to me why it was so. I guess from a mass production perspective its easier running a full length channel vs. stopping at the collar and chiseling out the end. I haven't posted any pictures yet, but I'm getting around to it. I was very happy with how easy it was to carve the top. I even got a little raised lip (like the PRS models) with relatively no trouble. Now I'm shaping the neck, but at the point where I am at, I think I should think about attaching the fretboard already. I cant get a good "feel" for the neck when its still 1/4" too thin. BTW no one had any comments good bad or otherwise about Stew-Mac & LMI's fretboard material raw stock. Here's your chance if you missed it the first time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thedoctor Posted May 10, 2005 Report Share Posted May 10, 2005 Without knowing which material you want to use for your fretboard I can only say that LMI's ebony and rosewood has been spotty in appearence but good in quality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted May 10, 2005 Report Share Posted May 10, 2005 The book shows a lot of necks in progress and you can clearly see how the channel runs the entire length of the neck. are you sure it is not just a heel adjustable truss rod? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doug Posted May 12, 2005 Report Share Posted May 12, 2005 I'll comment on the switch and fingerboards. Switch - Allparts has them, that's where I get mine. Allparts has the best ebony fingerboards I've seen in a while if you like totally black ones. LMII has nice rosewood, StewMac has poor ones. LMII generally has better fingerboards overall. One note: The LMII fingerboards are beefy 3/8" thick, so unless you have means to thin them a bit you'll end up with a realy thick fingerboard. StewMac's are thin, almost too thin, but you might find them a fair choice if reducing their thickness is an issue. -Doug Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frank falbo Posted May 12, 2005 Report Share Posted May 12, 2005 The book shows a lot of necks in progress and you can clearly see how the channel runs the entire length of the neck. are you sure it is not just a heel adjustable truss rod? ← Well he said it was a book on PRS, so I'd think not. I don't know the book, but I have one of those big PRS catalogs here where they show the guitars at various stages of completion (with a highly misleading show of various hand tools by the way) and you can see clearly from pics that the slot goes to the end, because you can see it through the empty neck pickup cavity on a guitar in the white. I can't imagine the sense behind that, but whatever. PRS is a great marketing company. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guitarfrenzy Posted May 12, 2005 Report Share Posted May 12, 2005 I personally route from the headstock to around 1/8" more than where the truss rod will end, simply to leave some room for the rods when adjusted. The whole idea of the dual action truss rods though makes it no problem for routing like PRS does though. If the proper slot depth is cut then when the fingerboard is glued down to the neck wood, the pressure will keep the rod from moving at all. I personally try to cut it so that there is a slight bit of the blocks showing compared to the neck wood, that way the fingerboard will hold it like a clamp. Also, after you adjust the truss rod one way or the other, it will put enough pressure on the wood that it won't move anyway. It really doesn't matter though, and shouldn't be an issue either way you do it as long as it's a guitar design that the slot won't show, you couldn't do it on a fender style neck simply because of the height of the neck where the heel meets the body. It would be visible to some extent, unless you use at least a 1" thick pickguard.. lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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