Gibsonian L-0 With No Truss Rod.

[Gilbert Fredrickson]

To build this little "peanut" just like the G.A.L. plan, what are some things I need to consider regarding it's -gasp- lack of a proper truss rod?

[Clay Schaeffer]

The quality of the wood you use for the neck and the thickness and cross section you make it. It is a short scale guitar and joins the body at the 12th fret. With light guage strings it may get along fine without a truss rod. If I were building it I would consider using a Gibson style truss rod that adjusted through the sound hole. This would retain the look and shouldn't hurt the balance. I'd rather have and not need than need and not have....

[Gilbert Fredrickson]

Thank you. The chapter on set-up in Cumpiano's book has helped me understand more about steel string neck set angle and relief. Hand cutting the truss rod channel with a chisel should be fun, right? I mean, any opportunity to not use a router is a good thing. Thanks, again.

[Kif Wood]

if you are worried about the lack of an 'adjustable' truss rod, or just lack of truss rod. For what it is worth, I have built several flat-tops with 660mm scale (26") using up to 12-52 bronze strings that ahve no truss rod whatsoever. Instead i cut a slot and insert 12mm x 6mm CF rectangular tube. A small wedge of spruce/cedar inserted into the open ends prevents 'end split'. These necks do not move, and I can stand on them (150lbs!).

[Vincent Nobel]

I built one and tried to get it as close as I could to original spec, but I didn't dare not putting a truss rod in. You can of course make it accessible through the sound hole to keep the looks.

Lovely little guitar. Very responsive.