Wolfgang Posted March 16, 2008 Report Share Posted March 16, 2008 OK so a while ago, a friend of mine found an old japanese Maranthon guitar in his basement. It didn't work at all, so he gave it to me to mess with and keep. I did some rewiring and replaced the tuners, as they didn't work at all. Now, the neck had always had some problems. I believe it is mahogany (it feels like it anyway) and it has a rosewood fretboard. It seemed to have a rather sharp bend around the 14th fret. I had also tightened up the truss rod as much as I could (over a period of a few days of course) and the bend was still there and the neck was still bowing down in the middle. One day, the truss rod just sheared off right at the bolt from stress. Since I didn't really have much to lose and had a good deal of carpentry experience, I decided to remove the fret board. I followed the tutorial on project guitar which i must say was a great tutorial. The fretboard came off with no problems. Now, I expected to find the niche there with the truss rod sitting in it. Not so. There are three slots, with one in the center being about .2 inches in width and the other two being about .1 inches in width. Also, they are all covered with very thin pieces of wood, excepting anywhere in the range of about an inch to 1/4 of an inch on either end. The open area, however, is fairly covered or filled with the glue to glue down the fretboard. There definitely is a truss rod in the center one, however I can't get into the side ones very well to tell. Has anyone ever heard or seen something like this? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks alot Wolfgang Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted March 16, 2008 Report Share Posted March 16, 2008 Probably steel stiffeners in a guitar of that vintage. These days, my bet would've been carbon fibre rods. It's what all my necks look like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfgang Posted March 16, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2008 Oops I forgot to put up pictures. The whole neck: The nut end: The body end: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al heeley Posted March 16, 2008 Report Share Posted March 16, 2008 +1 for steel stiffener rods either side of the truss rod. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfgang Posted March 16, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2008 Alright thanks for that info. Now i took out the wood on top of the truss rod. The truss rod cavity and the truss rod are concave (theyre shaped like the bottom of an M&M rather than the top) which I believe would mean that tightening the truss rod would actually cause the neck to bow down more rather than compensate for the tension of the string. non-bolt end of the truss rod is flat rather than a barrel shape. Should I just flip the rod over and drill into the cavity where the adjustment bolt is (so that it can thread onto the remaining threads on the truss rod) and so that it compensates for bow rather than adding to it, or should I get a new truss rod and rout the nut end cavity so that the barrel-shaped anchor nut of the new truss can fit? I'm not sure if a new truss rod would fix the problem or just also bend down and increase bow when tightened. Thanks alot. Wolfgang Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dickie_rayne Posted March 16, 2008 Report Share Posted March 16, 2008 Alright thanks for that info. Now i took out the wood on top of the truss rod. The truss rod cavity and the truss rod are concave (theyre shaped like the bottom of an M&M rather than the top) which I believe would mean that tightening the truss rod would actually cause the neck to bow down more rather than compensate for the tension of the string. non-bolt end of the truss rod is flat rather than a barrel shape. Should I just flip the rod over and drill into the cavity where the adjustment bolt is (so that it can thread onto the remaining threads on the truss rod) and so that it compensates for bow rather than adding to it, or should I get a new truss rod and rout the nut end cavity so that the barrel-shaped anchor nut of the new truss can fit? I'm not sure if a new truss rod would fix the problem or just also bend down and increase bow when tightened. Thanks alot. Wolfgang Id say seen as you have it out anyhow replace it with a modern 2 way trussrod they dont cost a lot and it will be a dam sight better Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al heeley Posted March 17, 2008 Report Share Posted March 17, 2008 The truss rod cavity and the truss rod are concave (theyre shaped like the bottom of an M&M rather than the top) which I believe would mean that tightening the truss rod would actually cause the neck to bow down more rather than compensate for the tension of the string.No thats how it is supposed to work. The channel is curved deeper in the middle than the ends and the truss rod set into it in a curce. Tightening it makes it want to straighten out thus tensioning the neck more against the pull of the strings. However, +1 for a modern dual action rod for $15. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfgang Posted March 17, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2008 al heeley: ah ok thanks...I had the concept totally wrong then Installing a dual action truss rod sounds like a good idea. The only potential problem is that the neck is only .2 inches deeper that the neccesary depth of the slot for a dual action truss rod it doesn't seem like it would be a good idea to rout the slot that close to being the width of the guitar. Now, it would only be that close for about 2 inches. Is that too little wood? Thanks Wolfgang Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ihocky2 Posted March 17, 2008 Report Share Posted March 17, 2008 LMII sells a dual action truss rod that is not much thicker than a standard truss rod. It is the style used a lot on the really thin necks with dual action rods. Plus the general rule is that you want to have 1/8" of wood under the truss rod minimum. So 0.2" should be just fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted March 17, 2008 Report Share Posted March 17, 2008 I'm not sure if a new truss rod would fix the problem or just also bend down and increase bow when tightened. By all means replace the truss rod with a new one. A double action rod will need a flat channel, maybe you're better off putting a modern one-way rod in there: less work. What is going to solve your problems is re-planing the fretboard surface of the neck to make it straight. Properly cleaning the fretboard so it seats flat on the neck (or a new board), and a good fret dressing (or refret), to make it all straight again. Then the TR only needs to compensate string tension, as it should. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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