Official Luthiers Forum!

I have been reinforcing my necks that are rift sawn with carbonfiber rods for extra stiffness. I am now just starting to use quartersawn wood for my set neck guitars and was curious to see what you guys do. Reinforce or not??

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Barron Wesley Guitars

What kind of guitars?

Usually on electrics and acoustics, the trussrod do the job, and on classical you don't even need reinforcement if you use a great Qsawn neck without runout.

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

My set neck electrics.

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Barron Wesley Guitars

I don't rienforce anything per se'. I normally laminate necks, if I have a flat sawn neck blank, I will spit it and re-glue it quarter sawn, or just make a 5 piece neck. Either way putting any sort of laminations together is stronger than the original, so it is sort of rienforcing it. I generally have to use the 2-way truss rod to get some relief in the 5 piece necks. I think unless it is a real weak wood, it would probably be ok without reinforcement, but it wouldn't hurt to add it.

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John Thiessen
http://www.iszacguitars.com

I was thinking of doing this with some mahogany I have. How would you say the appearance of it is after? Can you see seems?

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Barron Wesley Guitars

I was thinking of doing this with some mahogany I have. How would you say the appearance of it is after? Can you see seems?

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Barron Wesley Guitars

Do you also put a truss rod, or just a CF rod?

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

If you have a good joint then you really can't even see it unless you look really close. The line is running with the grain so it just looks like a grain line if you can see it at all.
I am trying to remember where I read about it, but I have seen people take even quarter sawn neck wood and split it 3 ways and flip the middle section around to add stability. I do know that most of Carvin's koa and walnut necks are all 2 piece. I have a few walnut neck blanks glued up right now all 2 piece. I can't see the line from more than a foot away. I suspect that because the trees are so small that they only cut them flat sawn as I have only seen walnut that way (limited wood suppliers though).

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John Thiessen
http://www.iszacguitars.com

Good to know. Thanks for the info. I'll have to do this to make use of the wood I have.

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Barron Wesley Guitars

So far I have just used single piece quarter sawn walnut with the lmi dual action truss rod, haven't had any problems yet.



Do you just sandwich the truss rod with carbon fiber rods or put them in separate channels?

I tend to go with no CF in my guitars, I usually favor a thick asymmetric neck profile though. I have built many guitar necks with CF in them for other folks who prefer a very thin profile.
The biggest myth is that CF will keep a wood neck stable,as in not let it twist.
WRONG, but it will help keep it from bowing.
It will also reduce dead spots especially in basses and I usually will not build a bass without CF.

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How long is that in luthyears?