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I've read on the forum a lot of praise for the Allied rod, but I was wondering if many people build their own?

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Adam

IMO this is one area that we don't save to make our own, unless you are a machinist and are set up a such. This for a two way rod like Allieds that is. A single action Gibson style rod is easy to make, I made this type for the first 4 guitars but wanted to go to a double action rod.

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Rod, why did you change?

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

Superior control of the neck movement if needed.

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"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

I should have been more clear. Did you have a problem with a neck that couldn't be resolved or are you just being cautious? I have never seen a guitar with a back bow and I wonder how that could even happen with the strings wanting to pull the opposite way. I'm sure you guys use the duals for good reason.

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

I've always used a double rod for my electrics and acoustics. I've never had a neck problem either. However, I've seen PLENTY of guitars, acoustic and electric, with unadjusteable backbow and single action rods. If the fretboard's thick enough you can adjust the neck a little further back, re-radius the neck straight again, and relax the neck into a little relief, but that's expensive for most people.
I figure it's just best to use a double rod.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

I'm capable of making my own but at a little more than $10 it just doesn't make sense to bother with it. I do have an idea of a single rod that acts to both push and pull over the length of a arc'ed groove. Funnily....the truss rod itself would be very simple but you'd pretty much need cad/cam to make the wooden grove it rides in.

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

I'll take your word for it and buy them for my guitars but for the life of me, I can't understand how a back bow can appear in the first place. Unseasoned wood or really squirrely grain is about all I can think of. Even with that, there's so much tension wanting to pull it the other way.

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

Fret slots too tight and/or fret tang too thick, and/or unseasoned fretboard material, and/or fretboard glue-up performed during high RH. One of those, or any combination will result in a backbow.

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

I agree but the first 2 can be fixed before it leaves your bench and the next 2 probably don't exist coming from a knowledgable builder. The purpose of the dual action rod is to fix things down the road, correct? That is what has me befuddled and bespectacled. I guess I haven't reall come to terms with wood movement over time. Wait minute, I think I just answered my own question

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

Adding to that. If there is any inclination for there to be a backbow due to fret slot width....then the harder the fretboard material...the more backbow you're likely to see. I did some maple fretboards with .022" slots and they were fine. When I did the same thing with cocobolo fretboards I got a slight backbow on every one of them. It was no issue since I was using two way truss rods...but it was a valuable observation.

I have to use .023" slots on harder woods and .022" slots on softer woods. Something for me to write down and remember.

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

You have to remember, you're relying on the truss rod to move the neck like 0.020-0.030" AT THEM MOST. Not to remove excessive bowing of the neck. The truss rod is for setting relief in an already (hopefully) flat fretboard. If you have to correct more than that then more work is required and not from the truss rod.

I just like and want the option to change my neck relief settings either way depending on what the neck does. Ever been to the tropics with a guitar? The humidity will wreak havoc on the entire guitar. Ever been to the desert....? same thing. We build in a stable environment (or we try to as best we can) but once it leaves that environment, you never know where it's going to go or live and how that will effect the outcome.

A friend of mine worked in the Phillippines for several years. He had a friend make him a little travel guitar there. It's in my shop right now, hanging on the wall. The frets have popped way out from the fretboard which shows that the guitar was built in a very humid environment and now that it lives in my shop at 44%RH, the wood has shrunk and the frets show this all too well.

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"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson