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I’m working on my first neck with a truss rod. I’m using a Hotrod truss rod.

At this point I have the slot cut ½” deep in the neck. I cut the slot on a table saw so it goes from the heel through the headstock. I will be accessing the truss rod through the sound hole. My plan is to fill the headstock area where the slot is with wood (probably spruce) and install a spruce cap over the truss rod.

The neck is built with a scarf joint. It will be a slotted headstock. I’m at the process of thinning the back side of the headstock. Since this is my first I’m a bit hesitant about the transition area from the thin headstock to the fat neck (not really fat). I will do one of those sort of rounded transitions where it scoops to the neck, but I’m need to determine how far up the neck to go while I’m keeping it parallel to the face of the headstock. Below is a pic that sort of shows what I’m talking about.



How much meat should I leave between the truss rod slot and the back of the neck? Is there a minimum dimension?

Thanks for the advice,

John

1/8" at least left between the neck and truss rod slot bottom.

In your picture, where the neck line and the headstock line intersect, that's where you want to leave the intersection. You've not left enough wood to do a volute.

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John, you want to have at least 1/8" between the truss rod and the back of the neck.

Chuck

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Thanks. That helps. It is a bit unnerving to do this the first time.

The spot (dot) to the right side of the pic is just at 1/8" under the truss rod slot.

Rod where the neck line and the headstock line meet is 1/4" under the truss rod slot. I'm not planning on doing a volute, more of a blend from the headstock thickness to the neck thickness. This would probably be a safe spot to start that. I’m leveling this out with a Wagner safety planer and will end up shaping the transition with a file. I'll also be adding a back strap here.

Well I did it. I extended the headstock line up to where Rod had said. The intersection of the neck line and the back of the headstock.

I did this with a Wagner Safety Planer. I bought that tool back in 2004 and tried to use it on a really small generic drill press. Let’s just say it has been sitting in the box for a really long time since then. I recently picked up a decent drill press and what a difference a quality tool makes when doing a job. I’m going to have to stock up on more of the “quality tools”.

I went ahead and tapered the back of the neck with the Safety planer. I also cut the shape of the heel out of the heal block. Next step will be building a Jig to cut the tenon. Progress is being made.

Thanks for the help,

John

Filippo,

I like the thinner neck too. Thanks for the tip. I picked this one up because I was making a stew mac order. I have one other Hot Rod for the next build then I'll probably move to the Allied truss rods.

That is the plan anyway.

John.