MIMF

sorry yea ... potty mouth. musta been reading ellies posts on fb and got swept up in it. my bad
anyhow...
it is this baby from LMI
There is some tension on it, but not a lot. Only enough to maintain correct relief. At that tension, it appears there is a sympathetic resonance of the rod itself that kills the note. The strange thing (which I tried to get across before) is that when the instrument is played on its back, the effect of gravity must bow the rod down ever so slightly and it audibly vibrates agains something inside the channel - I assume it is the back wall - at the same note. Pretty good evidence that that rod is the culprit.
My fix would be to remove the FB, and:
* damp the rod with something that still allows it to turn. Foam basically, or
* replace the rod with a compression rod - which is my preference

It's really not a horrible effect, so the customer is opting to do nothing. I can fix it if he wants.

You could fix the buzz by drilling a hole through the neck around from the back around the middle of the truss rod, and glue in a dowel that is grain-matched to the neck wood that rests or pushes lightly on the truss rod. You could hide the dowel almost completely and the truss rod would still work fine. I seem to recall that Fender had a screw in the middle of some of their truss rods.

Really nice looking guitar Chuck

I'm late to the game here but I want to say nice job. Great looking build Chuck.

Thanks guys.
Quick update - the client reports that the guitar is sounding great after I tweaked it a bit.
He claims that it is "playing in" which I understand for an acoustic guitar, but don't really see how that would work for this big hunk of lumber.
Either way, he is happy, and since this project I've converted a cheap-o acoustic from righty to lefty. So I'm in the shop enough to stay active ... but I do need another significant project!!
See you around.

It's funny how a little time (and maybe a little bit of distortion and volume) can clear up little issues like this one.

Chuck Tweedy wrote:but I do need another significant project!!

Sounds like you need to enter the 20th Anniversary MIMF-Instrument Contest! You have certainly been around here long enough to have a few stories.

You want a little project? If you're going to jump into electrics with both feet, I think it's time you built a winder and start winding pickups. There is no deeper rabbit hole.

Jason Rodgers wrote:You want a little project? If you're going to jump into electrics with both feet, I think it's time you built a winder and start winding pickups. There is no deeper rabbit hole.

I'll second that. I recently wound some tele pickups on my mom's old sewing machine. First time for me and I enjoyed it immensely. They also turned out really well.

I've already thought about winding pickups - inspired by you Mr. Rogers.
I do have a 15 year-old son who is a bit of a project as well.
may have to stick to him for now.