Official Luthiers Forum!

Just wondering, as I look to cut my neck this and next week, why classicals don't have truss rods, and do you classical builders build with carbon fiber, or just the fretboard and QS wood? Why not add a little trussr?

_________________
Here is what a Parlor Guitar is for!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEa8PkjO6_I

Some classical builders use carbon fiber, and some use truss rods (Hill Guitars for one), others use nothing. So far, I haven't used anything in my necks.

_________________
Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

A Lot of my Classical Building customers use a strip of ebony or rosewood in the neck to add rigidity, but certainly no truss rod

Paddy

What Waddy said.... Many use Ebony or CF. Hill is one of the few who use a truss rod. I use 3/8 x 1/4 CF bars. The total string tension on a classical can be ~95 lbs. (D'Addario EXP45C) where a steel string can be at least twice that amount.

_________________
Peter

A truss rod in a classical neck would be great if it did not weigh more than the wood removed to install it.
I've had a few Australian classicals in the shop with adjustable rods.
The necks were Padauk or some other heavy wood so the weight of the rod was a moot point.

I use CF like Peter J.-but I scrape & plane the f.b. with a forward bow for string swing.

I've seen many old classicals with no reinforcing in the neck and they look great !!!
Sometimes you get one someone put steel strings on and it's warped
Then the bridge rips off also !!

Mike

_________________
Mike Collins

There is no accounting for stupidity, Mike!

_________________
Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

It is also important to think about the weight of the box. If it is light, there can't be anything more annoying than a heavy neck!

_________________
Build log

check the classical guitar forum and see how many people bemoan the fact that they have a bow in their neck and no easy way to fix it. Thats why I put a truss rod in mine - the weight is negligible - the balance point on my guitar is around the 12 fret.

_________________
A higher purpose for wood.
Rich Smith
Issaquah, WA

One of my students made titanium truss rods for his classicals. Worked great, weighed next to nothing. Tough to make, though....

This is true, but most of them, complaining, are playing low cost manufactured guitars, not hand built ones. Those guitars are often built with necks made from woods of low stability - poorly quartered, poorly dried, used before acclimated, etc. Most of the posts you see over there for guys looking for guitars are looking to spend less than $1000, and many of them want to spend less than $300. Not saying there is anything wrong with that, but those are the guitars that need truss rods - the cheaply built ones.

_________________
Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars