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So I used a straight piece of would for a jig to run my router against to get a nice clean straight pocket for the truss rod. But it didn't end up that way. At the bottom there was a big gap that I filled in with wood ( since no one would ever see it) put in the truss rod and glued the fret board down. Now when I hit the neck all I can hear is the truss rod rattle any advice? Should I fill in the truss rod pocket with wood or filler? I will start from scratch if need be. but I spent alot of hours on craving the neck and it turned out well. Hate to throw it out.

Does the rod have tension on it? If it is slack , the rattle may go away when it is tensioned. Also what type of rod did you use? Worst case you most likely don't need to make a whole new neck but you may need to pull the fretboard, remove the rod and wrap it with electrical tape.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

It's a hot rod truss rod. Would I be able to tape a 2 way truss rod?

The hot rod is already wrapped with a shrink like tubing. So you shouldn't have to do that. Did you glue in this filler wood that you stated you put on the bottom of the slot? If not it could be what is adding to the rattle. If so did you add a few dollops of silicone sealant to the bottom of the channel before placing the truss rod in. Stew Mac recommend this....Mike

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Another day, another dollar.

I did glue in the piece of added wood. I didn't put silicon in the truss rod slot. I will try that though. If a person wanted to could you fill in the truss rod pocket with wood and glue and start over again. Since the truss rod pocket is on the center line I would be routing it out again. I just feel I could do a better job.

You could do that if you feel thats what you want to do. Sometimes though it good enough to leave it alone. I have been a perfectionist at times and ended up doing far worse then if I just left it alone. As for the silicone only put a dab at the two blocks at each end and a dab is okay in the middle of the slot bottom. Be sure to press the blocks down tight into the silicone...Mike

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Another day, another dollar.

when I glued mine in, (same hot rod from stewmac) I used automotive gasket making silicone because it's what I had handy. The nice thing about it is it's red, or blue usually so it was easy to see how much I had used, and it was obvious by my squeezeout that I had used enough. The other thing I liked is that if any silicone had gone where it shouldn't have it would immediately be obvious, so I could potentially mitigate any finishing issues in the future.

I think if you had pictures of this it might be of more help, although if you didn't take any while you were building the neck I suppose you wouldn't have any. I'm trying to understand exactly how you routed and how you filled it. Did you simply route too deep?

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http://www.tinyhouseandland.com

I wonder if you could drill a smll hole in the back of the neck down to the rod and squirt some goop in?

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

You never said if you have any tension on the rod.

I had a trussrod once that "sang" when I hit the neck. I could even tune the frequency by tightening the rod. Great fun. Based on some advice I got here, I drilled a couple of holes and injected rubber cement into the channel. Fixed the problem. Sure made the rod hard to adjust, but i still worked and the singing went away.

I didnt have tension on it. I took the time and took the fret board off. Going to try and do it right.

So you never tried to see if the rattle went away with tension on it? Almost any rod will rattle if it's loose, even if it's installed properly.

When I install a trussrod, I lay 4 small rectangles of thin crafters felt across the slot & then just push the rod through them into the slot....... no silicone, tape or other messiness. Lots of ways to get it done. Due respect John but I think the test is that it shouldn't rattle even with no tension on it.

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Dave
Milton, ON

You're right of course, Dave. I didn't phrase that very well. What I should have said is any style of rod CAN rattle, even if it's not an unacceptable install otherwise. I don't think I would ever tear apart a neck if the rod stopped rattling with a little tension.

Actually what happen was I was using the fret cleaning tool and it took a big chunk out of one of the frets. With that I just thought it was a sign to start over. So I took the old one off and going I repeat it all over again. This time making sure I'm at least 90% happy with the truss rod. Then glue fret board on.

That's actually half the story heres the whole truth. I spent about 10 hours on making this 12th fret inlay. It was really nice. Like I said I chipped the fret board. So I thought why not sand it down. The chip wasn't that big. So I started sanding away using my radius block watching the chip disappear. But at the same time so did a quarter of my inlay. So I pretty much lost my cool. That's when I decided to rip the fret board off.

I sanded through the very first inlay I ever did.