Replacing a Truss Rod. *New Pics*

[Vol. Knob]

So... About two years ago I bought a Karosa neck off ebay, for cheap.  Goncalo Alves neck with a Marblewood fingerboard.  A beautiful neck.  Less than $60 after shipping.

You get what yo pay for.  It took a lot of work to get the neck to be playable.  Wonky string spacing on the nut.  Wonkier tuner peg spacing on the headstock.  Uneven frets.  Fret ends sharp enough, and sticking out far enough to cut your fingers.  But hours of work made it playable.  It looked amazing.  It sounded great.

Two years on...  The neck has bowed a bit.  But the truss rod adjustment was in a hard to reach spot, and did nothing.  So, I figured it was either A) Fix it.  or B) trash it.

I peeled off the Marblewood fretboard and found this....

The crappiest home-made truss rod the world has ever seen.  It didn't even go the length of the neck.  It was a truss rod in name only.

So I bought a double expanding truss rod....

But as you can see, the channel isn't long enough...

So I have this buddy, Dave, who works with me at my Jewelry store.  We had a slow day and he decided to tackle the neck while I worked on paperwork...

 

[Vol. Knob]

 

[Vol. Knob]

Now.... I'm a dork.  I didn't get pics of gluing it all back together, or of the finished project.  Yet.


That said, it's carried me through two band practices in the last two weeks nicely. 

It sounds like I want it to sound, and its playable.  I did a pretty crappy job of putting it back together, but its a more rugged guitar than it looks.  So far, so good.

 

[Strat Avenger]

Impressive.  :rock-on:

 

[jimh]

Good work V.K. and Dave.

Nice to see a happy end to difficult job.
:icon_thumright:

 

[Vol. Knob]

I got one pic of the clamping operation for the Nut Re-Install....

The Finished Product...

I could have done a better job gluing the fingerboard back on.  Its a little over on one side.  But its more than playable and better set up than it was before.  I can actually adjust the truss rod.  Its nice to have this guitar back up and running.  I've had this guitar for 14 years....  Well, I've had the body, the bridge plate, string ferrules, and neck plate for 14 years...  the rest of it is newer...  But this guitar is special to me, its always been loyal.

I'm glad I installed the new truss.  Big huge thanks to Dave for getting tired of waiting for me and cutting the channel for the Truss with a shaft drive, by hand. 

I can say that I won't buy another Karosa neck.  In fact, my Warmoth Bodied Double F Hole Thinline is getting a new neck, I've already pulled off the Karosa neck and have a new one on the way from Warmoth.  Though the other Karosa neck is fine and had no new issues, I'm certain its days are numbered.