Official Luthiers Forum!

My new hobby is working on this old Kawai 12 string. You may recall the photos of the unique bracing method the employed, in which they drill through the braces when placing the bridge pins. Well, I changed the bracing pattern, and the top is now flat (no belly), but the action is still high. Sounds okay though. I noted quite a bit of relief in the neck, and when I went to adjust the truss rod nut, observed that it twirled freely. Ah but not just the nut twirled, the rod did, too. Uh oh. I gave the rod a tug with a pliers, and out it came. The far end was not threaded, but had evidence of something that was spot welded, what ever it is, I assume is still in the truss rod cavity.

So, this thing is full of surprises and to my knowledge has a street value of ~$200. Rather than spending the time to figure out what kind of neck joint it has, I am thinking about sawing the neck off, and converting it to a bolt on, and fixing the neck angle that way, and while I have it off insert a barrel in the neck joint wherever the welded piece was.

Any other ideas other than wood chipper or fireplace? The owner is a friend and has an emotional attachment to the guitar, and this is pro bono work.

Okay,so it had a nice dovetail. Unfortunately, filled with some type of space glue, which I found after sawing it off. I'll order a new truss rod, but I was wondering if a long carriage bolt would work as well for a single truss rod. Has anyone tried this?

Thanks to FRETS.COM for the step by step on bolt on conversion.

When bolting back on, is there any reason not to drill through the heal on the lower bolt hole, and use it to hang a strap button? Thanks. GS

Sort of MSC direct sells drill rod in various sizes, get the right threading die and you cam make any length single action truss rod you can dream of. Good Luck

It came out great, thanks fellas.