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Hello everyone, so I'm carving my necks right now and ran across a problem (or not, depends I guess). So I was shaping my neck and I was doing it the make the first fret thickness and 11th fret thickness and connect the two with a spokeshave method. I was shaping the reference point with a sander and didn't realize that I made the 1st fret thickness less than what I wanted. A lot of people like at least 1/8" wood under the truss rod, in my case my neck would have to be about 13mm at the first fret to give me an eight under. I sanded it down to just a scoush under 11mm, which is a .0827" difference. (I did the math lol) The neck is quartersawn cocobolo sandwiched between african mahogony and reinforced with the carbon fiber rods. The truss rod sits right in the cocobolo. Question is, is this too thin or should it be ok, since the coco is denser and harder than the mahogony? So instead of 1/8th", I have .0827" less than an eight under the truss rod at the first fret.

I can get pictures if needed, but tomorrow though. Shouldn't be here this late anyways, it's 12:10 am here!

Thanks a lot everyone and have a good night!!

Is the fingerboard on yet? If so, crank the truss rod to whatever you think the maximum it will ever be cranked to throughout the life of the instrument. If it dies, then it was too thin. If not, loosen it back up and continue

But my not so experienced guess is... too thin. If the fingerboard is NOT on yet, you could take it out and replace it with a single-action compression rod, since those don't push down on the bottom of the slot, and are in fact more effective the closer they are to the back of the neck.

If your saying you only have .042" under your rod,you are too thin.
Tom

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I always wondered how much a "SCOUSH" was,must be close to .004".
Tom

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Yes but just at the first fret. My truss rod's end is in the middle of the first fret

Here's something to think about. When the strings are at concert pitch and the neck is wanting to pull forward (as if you're holding it) and you need to add some back bow to the neck, think about what the truss rod is doing to create the back bow...

Where are the stresses on the neck when using the truss rod to induce a back bow????


The pressure at the ends of the truss rod will be applied to the back of the neck which is why you want more material there...

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Is the guitar for you?
Bolt on neck?
If both answers are yes,
and it was me,
and I knew the neck wood well,
I'd leave it.
Depends on how picky of a player is getting the guitar.
You know, the kind of player that is constantly adjusting the trussrod.
I know a few.

This one is for my dad who probably has no idea what a truss rod is, so he won't even be messing with it. And I live in the same city as he does, it will be a birthday gift and I think I'll just go with it. I'll waranty it for life anyways and if it will work fine, great! If it cracks, I'll put a new neck on