Home Building A Les Paul!

[Barry Daniels]

The problem with a curved truss rod is cutting the curved channel there are several ways to doing it but all require some kind of jig, you can cut a constant depth slot and glue a curved filler strip in the bottom. The filler strip that goes over the top HAS to be tight on top of the truss rod otherwise it won't work. There are a few other types of truss rod you can use that only require a constant depth slot, there's the type that runs in an aluminium box section and probably best of all a bi flex truss rod that will bend the neck both ways. On occasions either the act of gluing on the fretboard and/or putting the frets in can cause the neck to form a slight back bow and with a single action truss rod you can't do anything about it, basically it's a disaster! Unless you have a double acting rod that you can adjust to counteract the curve.
If you do use a traditional single acting truss rod it's a good idea to sand a slight curve in the fretboard before fretting that way you can compensate for any "back bow".

A curved slot can be easily cut without a jig using a router table and some masking tape. If you are interested I can provide details. The filler strip does not need to be curved but is simply clamped every few inches to push it down onto the curved rod while the glue cures. The best way to handle the other problems stated above is to use epoxy to glue the fretboard so that moisture is not added causing warpage. Also, just tighten up the truss rod a bit before leveling the frets to give you some adjustment in the upward direction. This is a very simple design that works quite well if these additional measures are taken.

[Jordan Miller]

How do you do it without a jig? Photos appreciated if you can.

[Barry Daniels]

No photos of process. I use a router table. I put a small strip of wood 1/8" thick next to the router bit and tape it down to the table. I also use Stew-Mac brown masking tape and build up two ramps on the neck itself, on either side of the neck. The ramps start at the fifth fret and get thicker up to the nut where it is about 1/16" thick. This is simply done by using ever shorter strips of tape (probably five or six strips). Using a fence, I run the still square neck blank over the router bit taking an 1/8" deep cuts until I reach the desired depth. As the tape ramps run over the 1/8" thick piece of wood it makes the slot have a flat bottom until the 5th fret where it curves upward. This is where the truss rod action will be concentrated. This process sounds sort of quick and dirty, but it works really well in practice and only requires about a dollars worth of tape. You could make the little ramps out of wood but its not really necessary.

[Chris Richards]

Hi.... I like the tape method of doing a curved slot, a simple solution is often best... I've attached some pictures of a jig that I built to produce a Fender style neck, it also locates the nut and anchor barrel holes, it's important to get these at the correct angle otherwise the truss rod won't work effectively. Also there's a picture of a Fender neck cut down the middle to show the truss rod curve. I also cover the rod with drinking straws and a smear of oil to stop it getting stuck with the glue from the filler strip.

[Jason Rodgers]

Chris, that jig is awesome. Consistent results every time.

I tried my hand at a curved truss rod slot today. I started with the tape ramp method, but got tired of tearing tape after about three layers (it reminded me of taping off trim for painting!). Then, I considered cutting two little concaved ramps to attach on either side of the intended slot, but ditched that idea when I though more about how I'd attach them to the neck securely. The method I settled on wasn't pretty, but did the job very well.

I grabbed a 2" wide strip of 3/16" plywood about 2 feet long. I measured where the deepest point of the slot would be, somewhere around the 6th/7th fret, and went to my belt sander and sanded down 1/8". Then, I faired out an approximate curve along the length of the strip. When double-stick taped on the neck, it rides on a strip of wood just in front of the bit in the router table (the bit cut through the strip, but there was more than enough length to keep the halves together). After several passes, I had a slot about 1/4" deep at the nut and near the heel, and 3/8" deep around the 6th/7th (this is going to work for the rod I'm using). I repeated the process on two more necks and it worked well.

[Jordan Miller]

Wow! that jig is by far the best I've seen.

I think I'm going to buy a premade neck, with fret markers and all, then attach that to my Les Paul body.

[Freeman Keller]

Jordan, don't know if this will help but I've built two Les Paul clones - here are build threads posted at a different forum

http://www.harmonycentral.com/forum/for ... 1/1104633-

http://www.harmonycentral.com/forum/for ... clip-added

I recommend reading thru a few threads like mine, not only will you get ideas for your build, you'll see where I made mistakes or changed something.

I used modern double acting rods in both of mine - one of the nice things is that they have a smaller cavity in the head of the neck which is normally a weak spot on Gibsons. I also did a scarf joint there - that is much stronger than a one piece neck.

It looks like you have plans that will give you neck angle and all the geometry related to the top - remember that the carved top does make the geometry a little more complex. I highly recommend Melvyn Hiscocks book - he walks you thru building three different neck designs and talks a lot about the geometry involved. Also get all your hardware or at least download dimensional information - you'll want that as you lay out your neck angle.

You can buy a premade neck, of course, but building your own is both rewarding and daunting. Good luck, have fun.