Truss rod trouble!

[John Sonksen]

Well, here I am moving backwards again, guess I moved into celebration mode too quick yesterday after getting the neck fit on my second electric finally. I was all set to do my final fit on the angle at the heel and decided to straighten out the neck first with the truss rod. I but a block under the nut end of the neck and used a c clamp in the middle to pre-bend the neck straight so the truss rod, (double action hot rod) wouldn't be doing all of the work. Gave it a turn in one direction and could tell it was fighting me so I went the other way and instead of being easy, I heard a little tearing noise and watched as the fret board popped up a hair at the nut end. So, I want to do it right and wasn't going to just try and squeeze some glue in since this is a stress joint, and since I had to reglue the fret board on my first I wasn't too skeered so I set to peel that baby off and reglue it. When I did the first glue up I used a good amount of silicone at both ends of the truss rod, oh and one more detail: I was a little off on my truss rod channel width so I had shimmed the sides at the nuts to get a tight fit, I'd made sure that the truss rod was functioning properly before I closed it up, I ran a piece of 3/4" masking tape over the channel and got a good amount of titebond one on there. Clamped it up, left it clamped for several hours and then that was over two weeks ago.

So now I have the fret board off, I feel like I did everything right but the silicone is still wet in the channel and I've had an obvious failure. What can I do to make sure this won't happen again? Should I try epoxy at the nuts? The fret board is ziricote, should I treat the surface with something before I glue it back up? I'm a little reluctant to do anything just yet, I want to make sure I get the strongest set up possible. I've cleaned as much silicone out of the channel as I can, I've scraped the neck surface and the fret board of all old glue and waiting before I do anything else!

[Mark Swanson]

Don't treat the fingerboard with anything. If you treated it before you glued it the first time, it can cause a bad glue joint. Just use a fresh surface when you reglue it. Too bad about the silicone, I would not have gotten it anywhere near the guitar.

[John Sonksen]

Don't treat the fingerboard with anything. If you treated it before you glued it the first time, it can cause a bad glue joint. Just use a fresh surface when you reglue it. Too bad about the silicone, I would not have gotten it anywhere near the guitar.

Don't worry Mark, I'm well aware of the danger of silicone and was very, very careful. I didn't have any squeezeout above the channel and didn't get any on the rest of the guitar as the neck wasn't joined to the body at the time. Besides, it wasn't carved and I like shellac on my necks which is one of the few finishes that can bridge the stuff.

Out of curiosity, do you use these truss rods? I'm open to another design, was intrigued by the dual action rods that PRS uses. I like the idea of a fillet that captivates the rod while it's a single rod so it's not nearly as close the back of the neck as these hot rods. Anyways, thanks for getting back to me, I'm gonna go for a new glue up with a freshly scraped fret board and leave the clamps on for longer this time.

[Mark Swanson]

You're welcome John...No I don't use the Hot Rod, I like the Allied trussrods, they are slim and dual-acting.

[Steven Odut]

Did you leave the masking tape on the surface of the neck when you glued the fretboard on?

[John Sonksen]

Did you leave the masking tape on the surface of the neck when you glued the fretboard on?

No, laid down beads of glue, spread it out, then pulled tape, and clamped