Trussrod questions

[amori]

Is the trussrod an absolute necessity in a mandolin? If so, I'm a little concerned that my metalwork skills are very limited, I'm not sure I can make one. Can one buy a ready made trussrod?

[Dave Hanson]

Up until the early 1920s Gibson mandolins did not have truss rods and thousands of them are still going strong with perfectly straight necks, Fylde Octavious mandolins do not have a truss rod and are well respected instruments, so the answer is no, they are not absolutely nessesscary, it really depends on the neck profile, ie. if it is stout enough { like an old Gibson ] it doesn't need one, but most modern instruments tend to have slim neck profiles and therefore they need a truss rod.

Dave H

[amori]

Can one buy trussrods ready made? I hope so, my metal work is pathetic.

[Jerry Byers]

Yes, check with Stewart-MacDonald (http://www.stewmac.com/).

[arbarnhart]

Also look at the non adjustable, particularly CF (carbon fiber) rods. Do some searches here to see discussion about them. Some high end makers use them. Phoenix not only uses them, but founder/luthier Rolfe Gerhardt has made some pretty strong statements about how much more trouble he had with necks when he used the old style truss rods and how little he has had since switching to CF. An adjustable truss rod is not an advantage at all IMO. It lets you fiddle with tension to try to fix a problem that you can usually just eliminate permanently with a CF rod. But in either case, a problem is an exception and by no means common.

Interestingly enough, StewMac sells them but doesn't promote them as truss rod replacements, just supplemental stiffeners:
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Truss_rods/Carbon_fiber/Carbon_Fiber.html

[Desert Rose]

While its true that some of the old mandolins didnt have reinforcement thats NO excuse for not using one now

There is no reason whether ease of installation, cost whatever to not build with either carbon or adjustable rods

Try to successfully market instruments in 2006 without them is an uphill battle

Scott

[Dave Hanson]

Fylde don't seem to have any trouble without truss rods, both Barney McKenna and John Sheehan of The Dubliners now play Fylde mandolins without truss rods.

Dave H

[ourgang]

Though an adjustable truss rod is not necessary, it certainly gives you the advantage to set your mandolin, or guitar, or whatever, up to achieve the best tone, volume and playability. I know that nearly everyone says that you should not use the truss rod to set action, but you certainly can. I've been doing it for years. Somewhere in the mandolin there is a sweet spot for tone, volume and playability and it is achieved through a combination of truss rod adjustment and bridge height. The Flatiron F5-Artist that I had was very sensitive to those two adjustments, and those adjustments were very dependent on the season of the year.

You don't need an adjustable truss, but what the heck, they only cost about $15 and they're worth a lot more than they cost.

[Paul Hostetter]

The early Gibsons had short, stout necks that didn't need adjustable trussrods. When Gibson later extended the neck and moved the bridge up the face (though not changing the scale), they put a rod in. A case could be made that the rod replaces the structural integrity resulting from the loss of wood the rod requires. In any case, I think the adjustable rod is justified in those longer necks but not in the earlier ones. A rod added to a 1917 A-2 would do nothing. I just refretted a nice old A2Z today for the first time. The relief in that neck was almost imperceptible after more than 80 years of string tension. This is typical.