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I just got an email about this today and thought some of you might be interested.

http://www.wood-carver.com/carbon-fiber ... -beam.html

(photo from their web site)

I like adjustable truss rods myself but if I wanted a non-adjustable rigid neck, I'd look into this.

By the way, I have no stake in this. Just spreading the word because I think it's worth a look.

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http://www.chassonguitars.com

Is that similar to Mcpherson's neck reinforcement? If I was the only person I had to please I'd use a steel T bar in all my necks. Client's usually want an adjustable truss rod.

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I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said.
http://www.brackettinstruments.com/

Looks interesting, but spendy!

Probably works great.... until you need to level the frets in a few years.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I ran across these a couple of months ago when looking into the possibility of building with a non-adjustable neck reinforcement. I opted for the Old-school T-bar instead. I'm actually starting that build this week.

I saw these carbon fiber rods at the display booth at A.S.I.A. Very cool because they are light, as well as strong, but the catch word used above "spendy" is accurate. Probably would be good for a light classical Spanish cedar neck.

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“ The meaning of life is to find your gift and the purpose of life is to give it away” Pablo Picasso

Sure a lot easier to level the frets when the neck is straight. I'm assuming of course, that during installation of this carbon fiber item that relief would be built into the neck, and being unadjustable... would make leveling difficult.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

For those of you who have old graphite shafted golf clubs,and don't mind using a little extra epoxy,these could furnish a cheap alternative.Just cut a 12" section below the grip,scape off the paint and bob's your uncle.

How often do you build a guitar and not adjust the truss rod?

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http://www.PeakeGuitars.com

Thoses are my thoughts too. I saw this truss rod at GAL and spoke to the owner. The key decision comes down to believing the ability to adjust the neck is an advantage or not compared to a neck that does not move (assuming that animal really exists). Seems to me that the ability to adjust the neck for different styles or different owner (you never know who will end up with the guitar) is a great advantage to give up.

I will say that the D shaped carbon fiber will not bend. You can stand on it. Something else may move, but not it.

Ed

And hence the problem....

Back in the 80's had a client who tossed his Music Man bass up at the end of a performance and "lost it in the lights". The maple neck shattered into four large pieces plus many shards. The truss rod was literally pretzeled. He didn't want a new neck - he wanted a repair, with an upgrade. He had faith in me to handle it, and I was ready for the challenge.

I got the major portions glued back together, and then broke out the tweezers to put the rest of the puzzle back together. Took me two weeks off and on between other repairs. Routed out the stripe that covered where the trussrod used to live and glued in a sizable beam of carbon fiber from LMI. Made sure to glue it up with some relief clamped into the neck. Then I did a refret and refinish. The client was delighted upon picking it up.

Fast forward 10 years. The old bass needed a fret level badly! Clamping to straighten the neck got in the way of the leveling file, right? It was a real pain in the butt (did it twice before I was happy). Anyway, while it was a neat experience for me to use carbon fiber in the job, for us repair guys, adjustability is a real plus - that's all I'm saying.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

PRS did this initially on their steel string acoustics. It was a point of debate at the time...one idea being that if the neck is straight you don't need to adjust it. The other side being what we have already mentioned...that there are times when you want to adjust it. One consequence we identified was that you pretty much had to ship these guitars with a couple saddles of differing heights to compensate for action changes due to the seasons, etc...

I'm firmly in the use a truss rod camp. I like to be able to adjust the instrument at the end of the day...!

I think PRS is still using this rod, so I guess it is working OK for them. Still not my cup of tea though. Now, on a bass guitar, I can completely see where some type of support is useful...

Steve Fischer, the luthier Paul initially hired to "invent" the PRS acoustics, came from McPhereson. So, maybe this is where that idea came from originally.

Trev

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http://www.PeakeGuitars.com