Carbon Fibre Rods

[oz tradie]

I've searched and come up with oodles of data concerning the placement widthways (either side of the truss-rod) but nothing that I can find regarding the best length to route them in .

Have an optic nerve at this. The same length as the truss rod ? longer....shorter?

pic link

cheers all,

Stu

[westhemann]

same length as truss rod

[Mattia]

As long as you've got. At least same length as the truss rod, all the way into the body/neck joint area, and on angled headstocks with veneered faces, I run them all the way into the headstock.

[westhemann]

i have done that before..to stiffen the volute area

[oz tradie]

Allrighty. thanks for that guys.

I read on the stew-mac site that you can glue in with epoxies, woodglue or CA glue.

Any particular method you guys use?

I'm leaning towards epoxy, but it's always pays to learn from others.....

cheers, Stu

[Mattia]

I use polyurethane or epoxy; lately more poly, because I'm lazy, and no mixing and relative ease of chiseling off after it sets up is an advantage to me. Been working fine for the last 5 necks.

[oz tradie]

The titebond polyurethane glue in a bottle stuff ?

[westhemann]

i use titebond wood glue..it's not a matter of sticking to it...it's more about having it tight in there so it does not move at all

[Mattia]

i use titebond wood glue..it's not a matter of sticking to it...it's more about having it tight in there so it does not move at all

I'm not so sure; I'd rather have it bonded to the neck to create one solid whole, to help it 'lock' the neck down a little more. Titebond will probably work OK, but if the wood compresses I don't want the titebond to let the CF go and push against the fingerboard; I'd rather it be gripped firm and fight the wood's compression from all sides.

[westhemann]

titebond is reccomended by stwmac themselves.but really,i have stopped using them altogether...they just aren't needed...

[oz tradie]

titebond is reccomended by stwmac themselves.but really,i have stopped using them altogether...they just aren't needed...

I figured some extra strength may be required with the hot rod style of truss rod as opposed to the typical martin style system

The neck is lammed Q/sawn Blackwood with 0.5 mm dyed maple veneers. seems extremely stable so far

Am I being too cautious about this one? Any real need for C.F. rods at all ?

[Mattia]

Need? Probably not. But I put them in every single neck I build, regardless. Wood is plastic, and will bend over time and strain, CF is not, and will not. Wood is a natural matieral, variable by definitition, CF is not.

I like what it does to a neck's stiffness, and it's pretty cheap insurance down the line. Matter of taste, I guess.

[SwedishLuthier]

You will probably not need CF rods with quartered and laminated wood. I would add it anyway. I always build with CF nowadays. I consider it to be like my home insurance. I pay it and hope that I don’t need it. CF is so easy to add before the neck wood fail, but soooo difficult to ad afterwards…

And I agree with Mattia: Make them as long as possible. I have a way to get them in the neck all the way from the tip of the head to the end of the neck. My necks are so strong/stiff that I sometimes have to help the neck get into a relief by tweaking the trussrod. And I use pretty heavy strings

EDIT: Mattia beat me to this one.

Edited December 21, 2006 by SwedishLuthier

[fryovanni]

All good advise. Use it or not it will be fine(plenty of necks have stood the test without). They do add some unique and potentailly desirable charictoristic. Added stiffness if you want it. No memory as Mattia mentioned. Use them if you want those axtra features, but your neck will by no means fail without them.

Peace,Rich

[GuitarGuy]

Just as a side note a good place to get cf rods is hobby shops. They carry them mostly for kites and RC airplane construction. THeyre round but they work.

[oz tradie]

I gave the 18" stew-mac C.F rods a red hot go. What the hey.........For me it's piece of mind

[westhemann]

well,it definatelydoes not hurt.