Official Luthiers Forum!

I really find it hard to believe a 1/8" x 3/16" shim over a truss rod making any difference in protecting the fingerboard from coming off, especially when the fingerboard glued with epoxy. I found one discussion in the archives about this but are some of you going without a shim, & does anyone just glue with pva?
Mike McNerney

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Mike McNerney

Is the function of the shim to prevent the fretboard from coming off? I have never heard that.

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

I just put a layer of fiber tape trimmed to fit the channel, to protect the truss rod from getting mired with epoxy.

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Greg
http://garibaldiinstruments.com/

FYI

From the Allied Website: Blanchard truss rod installation: These truss rods should be installed with a filler strip over them. Installing a filler greatly reduces the possibility of a truss rod rattle and reduces the amount of backlash in the rod. My installation procedure goes like this: Mill a 1/4" wide, flat bottom slot in the neck that is at least .400" deep. Make a filler strip approximately 3/16" thick that snuggly fits the truss rod slot. Rough up the flat backbone of the rod with very course sand paper or a file. This creates a good gluing surface. Put the rod in the slot with no glue. Apply epoxy to three sides of the filler and press it into place over the rod. Don't overdo it with the glue. You don't want it to squeeze down and foul up the threads.

Apply LIGHT clamping pressure along the length of the rod (see photo). You want enough pressure to eliminate any space between the flat bar and the round bar, but not so much that it makes the rod hard to turn. Check the resistance by turning the rod a quarter turn in each direction. You will notice that the filler strip will sink in a little more in the middle than at the ends. After the glue dries, level off the protruding filler strip. Avoid turning the truss rod more than 1/2 turn until after the fingerboard is glued on and fully dry.

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

I used to forgo the shim on LMI and Allied rods, and had no problems for many guitars. Then I had one that would make a terrible sound at certain frequencies.

Now I put in a shim. I guess it depends on how lucky you feel!

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Mike

"The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners. Shoosh." The Stranger

I tried the Allied rod with out a shim - major rattle. I won't do that again. I had to remove the fingerboard, glued a shim in as Steve described - no problems. It has nothing to do with keeping the fingerboard from coming off

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John Ressler