Official Luthiers Forum!

I am about to commence the design process of a thru neck 6 string and i am wondering whether a neck rod is really needed if i am using a laminated 5 piece neck?

anyone offer any advice?

Neck rod; what do you mean by that? Truss rod or carbon fiber reinforcement? The first one would be absolutely necessary, and the second would be highly recommended. So I guess the answer either way would be yes.

Welcome to the OLF Alan, i agree with Barry and Hesh, i built my last neck as a 5 piece lamination and did put a truss rod nd did not put carbon fiber reinforcement and this neck is plenty stiff and straight although time will tell if it will remain that way since the neck was built 4 months ago only. Hope this helps

Cheers

Serge

When I saw the "neck-through" description, I jumped to the conclusion that this was a bass. It this is a guitar then the the carbon rods are not necessary, but are still beneficial.

I use the SM Hot Rod 2 way truss rods in all guitars.

I put CF rods in 14 fret necks but not 12 frets. Even though I laminate them with maple and rosewood I decided to install 2 CF rods to further insure stability.

One observation on the 14 fretters is that I feel more sound transmitted to the neck. Has anyone else noticed this? Is this due to CF rods or just the longer length? I've only made two 14 fretters so I don't have much data.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Hey JJ.

I recently replaced a BRW fretboard on a customers Yamaha 5 string fretless bass. The nech was noodle! Although it was maple, these necks are long (34 inch scale length) and quite thin. I added two carbon fibre rods that I bought form Jim at Los Alamos Composites (Yaaaa! for our sponsors!) and I recently talked to this customer and he reports that the bass has never sounded better...EVER! Note that he has played the original fretboard off! I did change the nut also and generally tuned the bass up but this guy is one of the best players in the area and I think the stiffer neck really is the difference in this case....

Shane

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Canada

Glad that worked out for you Shane.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com