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Wondering what you folks have used for a graphite reinforced neck in place of an adjustable truss rod? Basically, I am looking for an graphite alternative to the Martin fixed steel square tube. Any help appreciated. This will be used in a light/med string tension steel string. Thanks, Peter

I have not done it but it has been done. it would be asy enough to find carbon fiber rod See Los Alamos composites link above

I think John How's ladder braced guitars just have CF and no truss rod.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

My size 5 with the short scale just has 2 rods 1/8 x 3/8 running down the sides of the neck without a truss rod. Martin hadn't made the short rod available when I built that one, So far no problems at all.

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Allen R. McFarlen
Barron River Guitars & Ukuleles
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Cairns, Australia

Peter welcome to the OLF!

I just built a mahogany/carpathian dread with two 1/8"x3/8" carbon fiber rods in the neck. No adjustable rod at all. Its a pretty stiff neck but still allowed just enough relief for my liking with medium guage strings and a bluegrass medium action setup. It's a very responsive guitar. Not sure how much difference it made but it compares well to one built a few months back with the steel T-bar. If you're conerned about stiffness three of those things should make a mighty, mighty strong neck.

Hope this helps.

Steve

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"We might not be big but we sure are slow"

Thank you guys so much. This info is great and will definitely give me a good baseline for what I am making (Selmer stuff). Thanks again, and any additional info appreciated. Regards, Peter Z

I put a fixed 6mm dia graphite rod in my last, set at the back of the neck (basically where a Gibson single acting rod would be).
Relief is perfect now but it has only been strung for a month so I will not comment on long term results.
If you go down this route make sure that
- you use a dense and stable fretboard and not too thin under the fret slots
-ensure that the neckwood is stiff and stable
-dont go ultra thin on the neck
-bond the CF rod in place well with good epoxy and epoxy fretboard to neck.