Laminated Neck With Truss Rod Question

[adrock1740]

well, i've been toying with the idea of building a guitar for a while now, and am finally jumping into it.

its gonna be a neck through, PRS body style, with a roller tune o matic bridge, 25" scale, 22 frets. neck will be laminated with cocobolo in the middle, wenge on either side of the cocobolo, and white limba on the outsides. body will be black limba. i have experienced wood workers and basically any equipment i need at my disposal, so hopefully it will come out nice. i have a decent amount of woodworking myself aswell.

onto the question. im going somewhat thin on the neck (.75-.8), and am going to use the truss rod from Allied. theres, and most all others, require a 1/4" wide slot for it. i really want to do the tapered laminates on the neck. my buddy told me i need to do at least a 1/2" at the thinnest point on the middle strip of cocobolo, to give 1/8" inbetween the glue joint and the truss rod route. i just wanted to know if this was true, as im trying to plan everything out, and wanted to know if it mattered how much was inbetween the truss rod route and the glue joint, or if the route can run right up to, or very near, the glue joint.

the thing is, my nut width is gonna be 1 11/16", ala wizard 2. if i do the center piece 1/2", the stripes outside that will have to be alot skinnier, and i was hoping to have all the stripe widths even. i hope you guys get what im saying, and can give me some advice on the matter.

EDIT: if i do 5 stripes of even width, under the nut the stripes will be .3375 wide, which will leave just under 1/16" on either side of the truss rod route before it hits the glue joint.

thanks

adam

Edited April 29, 2006 by adrock1740

[thegarehanman]

I really can't understand why your buddy is telling you that you need 1/8" between the truss rod and the glue joint. Really, your only critical measurement here is that you have 1/8" below the truss rod(dual action truss rods, in particular) so it doesn't blow out the back of the neck when tightened. As for the glue joint, that sounds like a bunch of malarky. The joint is going to be stronger than the wood, so you have no worries. Make the laminates as thin as you want where ever you want. Just make sure all of your laminates are suitable neckwoods(which they all seem to be). I would watch how much wenge you put in the neck though, that stuff tends to be pretty heavy if I recall correctly. Just to put your mind at ease, go to various custom bass sites and check out the ridiculous laminate necks some builders use. They'll use all really thin woods and even veneers once in a while. You're really fretting over a non-issue(no pun intended).

So tell me, where in the world did you stumble upon a tutorial on how to make tapered neck laminates? V V cough V V cough V V

peace,

russ

[Mattia]

Pfft. Irellevant. Go with whatever laminations you want, make sure you have enough below the rod (like Russ said, basically), and quit worrying. You can route right through the glue joint, as plenty of 2-piece necks, or 3-piece necks with only a 1/8" strip of contrasting wood between the two pieces have demonstrated over the years.

[adrock1740]

that's what i assumed. i figured i'd ask you guys to double check though, 'cause you know what happens when you assume.

and yes Russ, i have you to thank for the tapered laminate idea. i'm gonna do it a little differently, but use the same jig. im just gonna do a full scale drawing, than measure the width of the stripes at the base and head, and use those.

[adrock1740]

actually, got a question for you Russ, or anyone. a quick search returned nothing, and Melvyn doesn't cover this in his book. how would you go about cutting the truss rod route if your neck is already tapared. all im finding is to do it before you cut your taper. i guess you would have to make a jig with straight rails, perpendicular to your truss rod slot for the router edge to ride on. anyone have some insight into what would be the "easiest" way to do this.

Edited April 30, 2006 by adrock1740

[Mattia]

In these situations, I tend to clamp the neck in my workmate, set up a straightedge for my router to follow, measure to make sure it's parallel to the centerline, and route.

[j. pierce]

I always rout my trussrod slots with a router table (I just route right into the angle headstock, this gets covered up with a headplate) I had a slightly tapered neck blank I had to do this to (trying to salvage the last cut offs from some nice mahogany - this neck got scrapped for other reasons, though) I just made a matching taper from some scrap pine, and stuck it to the neck with carpet tape. That made a straight edge parallel to the trussrod slot running against the fence on the router table.

[doug]

I use a template with a 1/2" slot cut in it a little longer than the truss rod. The router (this one is dedicated to truss rod slot cutting only) is set up with a 1/2" guide bushing and a 1/4" spiral carbide cutter.

I used to use my router table and fence, but in the end I like the template deal better.

Set up whatever works good for you, so long as it's straight. Oh, don't rout it too deep! Measure that last few thousandths to make sure you have a snug fit.

-Doug

[adrock1740]

I use a template with a 1/2" slot cut in it a little longer than the truss rod. The router (this one is dedicated to truss rod slot cutting only) is set up with a 1/2" guide bushing and a 1/4" spiral carbide cutter.

wow, good idea. dont know why i didnt think of that. thanks man!