Rear Routing For Double-action Trussrods? (and A Quicky Cocobolo Que

[j. pierce]

The local lumber merchants got some beautiful cocobolo in. There's one gorgeous piece, just the perfect size for a neck blank - I'm considering throwing tradition to the wind and snagging it to use in a Mustang build I'm contemplating for my next project.

I'm thinking making the fretboard and neck out of this one piece could look beautiful, and I always liked the look of the "skunk stripes"; but I pretty much strictly use the LMI double action rods. The easy way to do this is going to be to bandsaw off the fretboard piece, do my truss rod routes and glue the fretboard piece back on. Maybe slice off binding strips to cover my fret slot ends while I'm at it. Can always add a faux (in use anyways) skunk stripe if I must have one before putting the rod in.

There's also another larger piece, which has me also contemplating making a neck like an old Peavey I used to have - joining the neck from two pieces with the slot half-routed in each side. With this particular piece of wood, I could make a book-matched neck, which might look damn cool.

But I still come back to the idea of rear-routing the thing, for whatever reason, which I doubt would be the method I'd use. Can anyone think of a way to rear-route for a double-action trussrod?

Whilst I'm asking questions - some of these pieces of wood I've seen have a fair bit of sapwood - the creamy colour makes an interesting contrast - but is this liable to pose a problem in a build?

[tubab0y]

as long as the wood is all dried, i see no problems.

and if you wanted to do a 1/4" skunk stripe, you could cut out a slot the right depth for the truss rod before you glue the laminates, and do a couple wraps of tape on each end just so it fits snugly.

[erikbojerik]

Its really not much different from routing for the rod from on top, just deeper. The more tricky parts are (A) if you screw the pooch on the rout, you can't just cover it with the fretboard; and ( getting the skunk stripe to fit without gaps; and © working out your rod nut access on the headstock.

In either case, I think your neck would be more stable by cutting off the fretboard and gluing it back on. On the doubleneck I made, one neck is a true 1-piece (6 strings) and the other is with the fretboard sawn off and glued back on (12 string). Both necks were from the same billet of wood (both have skunk stripes), and the 12-neck was the easier by far to set up....much less movement over the first month, despite twice the string tension as the 6-neck.

[black_labb]

you can use any truss rod in there. aslong as you can adjust it easily.

[j. pierce]

I guess my question was how to fit the double action rods from the back - I'd route a flat-bottomed channel, since the top of the rod is flat - but it seems that rear-routed fender rods are routed "almost" all the way to the nut-end, and then joined up with a drilled hole from the headstock end. ( http://www.warmoth.com/paint/paint.cfm?fuseaction=necks ) I can see how you could flex a traditional rod into the truss rod cavity left. I'm not sure how you'd do this with the double-action rods, and I don't know how I'd flatten the top of the truss rod cavity in the portion that was made by drilling in from the headstock.

[erikbojerik]

Now I see what you're talking about...the skunk stripe stops about 2+ inches from the nut. I don't know how you'd get a dual-action rod in from the back that way.

When I did mine, I routed the entire length of the neck. I used a walnut plug at the heel end butted up against the end of the rod, and used one long skunk stripe from heel to nut. Then I used matching walnut backstraps that covered the headstock-end of the skunk stripe.