Official Luthiers Forum!

Safe minimum thickness under truss rod

I spent the weekend making (one piece) necks, no laminates. I am using the LMI Truss rod.
I was wondering, what do you all consider a safe minimum thickness under the
truss rod? To be clear, I am referring to bottom of the truss rod slot.

Thanks

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Personnally, I leave about 3/16" but I've heard people go as thin as 1/8".

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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)

I've seen one under 1/8"...it's really easy to measure once the truss rod breaks through the back! (No, not mine)

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

I made one about .050".
It held up great, for about a year.
It wasn't intentional, just sanded too much again.
Now I won't do less than .125". I don't want to make that same mistake, for the third time.

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

Mine are about 0.187 at the first fret and 0.343 at the 10th with a 3/8" slot for the LMI TRSD rod.
Terry

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Depends a bit on whether you are routing a round bottomed slot or sawing a square one. With the round bottomed slot, you can go closer without the bad outcome of thumb pressure on the back of the neck collapsing the wood behind the rod.

That being said, my rough limit is 1/8".

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

1/8". Although it's usually more like 4mm.