Dual acrion truss rods - silicone or no? Oh… and carbon rods

PeteC

Does anyone here tend to use silicone to glue in their dual action truss rods - or use alternative methods to avoid any rattles and keep them from moving? 

Ive tended to silicone the areas near the ends but wonder if its necessary 

similarly i keep wondering if its worth using carbon rods in normal fender or gibson style necks

any thoughts ? 

Cheers 

WezV

Yes. use something like 3 drops of silicone  to hold it in place.

I didn't for years, but I've had a couple of problems with rattles recently

Most times you can solve it with a slight tweak of the rod or injecting some thinned wood glue or wax down from the adjustment, or behind an inlay. 

I had one recently that developed a really bad rattle after 18 months of being fine, none of the normal solutions worked.  I had to remove the board and reinstall a new rod, with some silicone in place to stop it.  This was on my first archtop build, an extremely resonant guitar which nicely amplified the problem for me.


CF rods, I use them when I think its necessary, but certainly don't use them all the time.    I used them a lot on early builds with laminated necks and ended up with some really stiff and reliable necks that never really needed adjusting.   

That sounds great, but it does change the tone for me and these days I prefer the liveliness of a more flexible neck that has to be balanced in tension between strings and rod.  I know some will believe that's crap, but my experience tells me i like it that way.

I rarely use solid bars these days.  I do sometimes use some hollow rods.  I believe they add a bit of predictability and security without changing the stiffness too much.  Things like a one piece flamed maple neck would get hollow rods, something with truly extreme figure might still get solid bars.



Edit - my most recent change to 2-way rod install is to install it a little deeper, use silicone underneath and add a thin fillet on top.  then re-plane it all level.  It allows me to make sure the rod is fully squashed into place by the fillet before the board goes on, and gives a better glue surface for the board.

PeteC

Thanks @WezV thats very helpful indeed. 

Jaycee

Similar to Wez, and I have also wrapped them in clingfilm