Gotoh Truss Rod

[Hey]

I got this truss rod on advice from this thread but I haven't seen a lot of information on it.

Of the three books I've read, the only one that mentions rods that like was Martin Koch's, where he says that the opening of the u-channel should face the bottom of the neck. However, that's in a description of a one-way truss rod with a u-channel, so I wasn't sure if the same applied.

So, how do you mount it?

Do you directly epoxy the channel to the slot in the wood? Do you epoxy all sides of it (bottom and sides, and top when you put on the fretboard)? You don't need to put it in a tube like some truss rods, right?

The bottom of mine has some sort of tape covering the inner workings. A corner has come off. Can I just put normal tape over that?

Nothing in the wood needs to hold it in place, right (eg., how a normal truss rod has a slot for the nut and a hole for an anchor in the heal)? You just make a slot and press it in.

Anything else?

Thanks.

[Davo]

I'm using this truss rod in my current build and it is pretty straight forward - the "open" part of the U channel (with the tape covering) faces away from the fretboard (i.e. towards the back of the neck). This leaves the flat metal surface to glue against the fretboard.

Slowly rout the channel at the correct depth so the channel sits just flush with the surface that will take the fretboard and does not have any movement from side to side (i.e. no rattles then when it is all glued). I glued the sides into the neck first (just to be sure) - no need to glue the side covered with tape. Then level the surface that will take the fretboard and you will be ready to go with the fretboard gluing. I used epoxy as well for my fretboard.

You are right that the rod doesn't need any sort of heal or anchor - it simply curves one way or the other when adjusted on way or the other. Feel free to repair the tape with anything you have - it isn't critical.

[Hey]

Thanks for the advice. I figured it was straightforward, but I wanted to be sure.

On that subject, and I hope I'm not asking too stupid things here, I have one more question.

About ten centimeters from the non-adjusting end, on the bottom side, is a little rectangle that pops up. I'd estimate it pops up by maybe half a millimeter. Here's a picture (sorry, taken with a bad web camera):

and if you can't see what I'm talking about, I circled it here:

Is that normal?

I imagine I'm supposed to get the rod to sit totally flat in the channel when I glue it in, so I'd have to clamp down the rod over that bump. It's big enough to raise the rod a little.