Rod Gomes in Dan's shop, 2017.
Here is my friend Rodrigo Gomes working in my shop on his last visit to the US in 2017. He's holding a Fender bass with a truss rod that doesn't work — it just spins. With a little help from me, he fixed this baby and blew my mind doing it.
Out with the old rod
Fretboard off, then the rod.
We decided to remove the fretboard and then remove the truss rod.
Cutting through the rod.
With the fretboard out of the way, Rod cut through the rod with a Dremel tool fitted with an abrasive cut-off wheel.
Pulling the rod with a jam-nut puller.
With the anchor end of the rod free, we pulled out the rod using a tool I have made a number of over the years — a brass rod drilled through and tapped to the thread size of the rod (in this case, 8-32). After threading the brass piece onto the end of the rod, I thread a secondary 8-32 stainless hex-head Allen bolt tight against the end of the truss rod, using it as a "jam-nut" to lock both pieces together. Then I turn the truss rod about to unseat it and pull it out.
A new fretboard, coved to fit
Coving the new fretboard on the table saw.
After pulling the rod we made a new fretboard from a StewMac pre-slotted fretboard. With the fretboard backside down on the table saw, and a fence clamped at an angle across the blade slot, we ran the fretboard over the running blade as we slowly raised it up.
Holding the board with a radius block and "Danny West" tape.
We held the board safely with a radius block double-stick taped to the fretboard surface using the "Danny West" tape (IPG tape used to put new leather on golf club handles). I call it Danny West because he turned me onto it and the name stuck — I met Danny before Covid when he came to a repair seminar in my shop when Ian Davlin came to teach finish touch-up, and he was an early member of the Looth Group.
A 5"–6" cove on the fretboard bottom.
The result of the cut is approximately a 5"–6" radius cove on the fretboard bottom. (The saw has a 10" blade.)
Finishing the radius with an Ibex plane.
Rod completed the radius with an Ibex plane, trimming it to a radius that matched the radius of the bare maple neck.
A rosewood template, patterned on a Jaws caul . . .
He made a 6" template from rosewood, patterning it to a StewMac "Jaws" fret caul . . .
. . . guiding the planing.
. . . and used it to guide his planing.
Rod at the plane.
Rod is highly skilled with hand tools. I always say "Rod could make a guitar with a jack-knife."
See what I mean?
See what I mean?
Routing the channel for a Hot Rod
Routing the truss rod channel.
With the fingerboard shaped to fit the neck, he clamped a fixture around the neck and routed the original truss rod channel clean and flat-bottomed (the Fender channel has a parabolic truss rod curve in the bottom).
The channel, clean and flat-bottomed.
The routed channel — clean, flat-bottomed and ready for the new rod.
The new Hot Rod in the channel.
Next Rod laid the new StewMac 2-way Hot Rod into the channel.
Gluing on the board
Locating holes through the fret slots.
To keep the fretboard aligned once glue is applied to the neck surface, two holes are drilled through fret slots at each end of the board, for small brads to be hammered into the neck face.
Tapping the brads to start the holes.
The fretboard is clamped in place and the nails tapped into the maple to start the holes. Now the board is ready to glue on — the brads at each end locate it and keep it from slipping once glue is applied.
Clamping with a 9.5" radius caul.
For clamping we used a 9.5" StewMac radius caul with small holes drilled in the face to accept the brads.
Glued up . . .
Here it is glued up . . .
. . . and dry.
. . . and here it is dry and ready for final shaping of the fretboard.
A good, tight glue-up.
A good, tight glue-up.
Markers, frets and dressing
Position markers.
Then Rod installed position markers.
Final sanding to 9-1/2".
After inlaying the dot markers, he final-sanded the fretboard before fretting — a 9-1/2" radius rather than a 7-1/4".
Fretting on the drill press.
He fretted it on the drill press with StewMac's fret installation caul.
Fretted, ready for dressing.
Fretted and ready for final dressing.
Taping off the frets.
Taping off the frets before dressing.
The ball clamp.
Rod liked my "ball clamp" — a wooden ball cut in half and held together with a hinge and a clamp to lock it closed. The inside has two padded shapes, one for the back of a neck and one for the fretboard. It lets me do some things in repair that make the job easier.
A beautiful fret job, Rod!
A beautiful fret job, Rod!
Shims, nut and setup
Shimming the neck pocket.
We decided that the neck needed to be shimmed in the pocket — StewMac tapered shims save a lot of time.
Pre-drilled shims . . .
While these shims come pre-drilled, they also come blank for punching your own holes.
. . . and blank ones.
Blank shims, for punching your own holes.
A perfect bone nut . . .
Finally, a perfect bone nut . . .
. . . and a good setup.
. . . and a good setup by a good player.
Playing a few tunes.
Finally we played a few tunes — I am holding the guitar that Rod made me in 2017. Spanish cedar top.