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Are Carbon Fiber Rods Necessary?

Tedward

Tedward

Feb 15, 2006
659
159
southern california
#1
I am building a new bass with a five piece flame maple and mahogany neck. 3/4" maple -3/8" mahogany-1/2" maple-3/8" mahogany-3/4" maple with a dual action truss rod. Should I use carbon fiber rods to help stiffen it up or will it be stiff enough using the laminates?

Tedward
 
#2
I'd have to say that you'll never go wrong adding stiffening rods.

You'd hate to finish the neck and find it not being stable/strong and then wishing you'd added the rods.

If you can't add the carbon rods due to cost then add steel rods, the weight is negligible. Or is there another reason you don't want rods in it?
 
#3
how many strings?

If its a 4 string they are pretty much unnecessary, but definitely wont hurt anything. You can get away with not using them on a 5 string also. But 6 strings or more I would absolutely use them.
 
#6
It will be a 4 string. I'm trying to figure the cost for parts. I'm trying to keep the total cost as low as possible.
Making the pickups and preamp,(the stingray 2 band). So far I have spent $40.00 for the wood. Got a good deal on some spalted maple in the TB classifieds a while back. The tuners and bridge I have from an earlier project the I decided not to do. My budget is $175.00.

Tedward
 
#8
Putting in different mass of truss rod and other rods will definitely make a difference. You can easily hear that by putting in different existing necks. How much and whether good or bad is a different matter.

I don't think it'll be needed for most basses. The way I see it the rods are popular in mass-produced instruments to keep the RMA rate lower. If you are willing to deal with the occasional dropout you should be fine.
 
#9
Necessary is a big word. Basses were made without them for decades.

They're useful. They improve things, stability and strength-wise. In some cases they reduce dead spots. Necessary? No, they're not necessary and many very fine instruments have been made without them.
 
#13
cnltb said:
I don't tend to like how basses with rods in the necks feel and sound.
Lefay basses are the exception
Click to expand...

I made it a point to not talk tone any more because everyone has their own opinions and nothing anyone on the internet says, can sway them.

But I have to ask, how does a neck feel any differently with rods vs without? I would understand if the neck was thicker because of the channel the rods are in, but I have gotten necks plenty thin with rods in them.
 
#14
Contrary to popular belief and IMO......graphite rods have one purpose, and that is to provide a stable fingerboard as possible with as few to NO dead spots as possible. They provide no strength to the overall neck - you're doing that by having a mult-laminate neck. IF the wood you're using is quality dryed and seasoned wood...you've done the best one can do ;)
 
#15
The thing is, it is really hard to formally proof whether something makes a sound difference or not, especially to other people. Even soundclips don't do much.

So, is it possible the extra rods change the sound (or a heavy truss rod for that matter)? Absolutely. Can you guarantee that it does, and if so, can you guarantee that it will be audible? No.

So the only way to go is to aggressively try a couple different necks on the same body, pickup and strings until you get a "feel" for what neck changes are like. I did that (more with guitars than basses) and the differences are huge. In Fender style instruments the neck matters more than the body, that's what I ended up being convinced of.

So myself I pick the risk of later deformation over rods, and that's why I can't have Warmoth bass necks. I am unconvinced that extra rods help against dead spots, though.
 
#16
The spalt maple is for the top of the body with mahogany for the main part of the body. The neck is flame maple. My main concern is dead spots. I'm guessing that by using carbon fiber the neck is stiffer there for raising the resonant frequency above the highest note on the bass and eliminating dead spots. Is this statement correct?

Tedward
 
#17
uOpt said:
The thing is, it is really hard to formally proof whether something makes a sound difference or not, especially to other people. Even soundclips don't do much.

So, is it possible the extra rods change the sound (or a heavy truss rod for that matter)? Absolutely. Can you guarantee that it does, and if so, can you guarantee that it will be audible? Yes

So the only way to go is to aggressively try a couple different necks on the same body, pickup and strings until you get a "feel" for what neck changes are like. I did that (more with guitars than basses) and the differences are huge. In Fender style instruments the neck matters more than the body, that's what I ended up being convinced of. I agree

So myself I pick the risk of later deformation over rods, and that's why I can't have Warmoth bass necks. I am unconvinced that extra rods help against dead spots, though.I disagree...but that's a subjective topic
Click to expand...

:D
 
#18
Tedward said:
The spalt maple is for the top of the body with mahogany for the main part of the body. The neck is flame maple. My main concern is dead spots. I'm guessing that by using carbon fiber the neck is stiffer there for raising the resonant frequency above the highest note on the bass and eliminating dead spots. Is this statement correct?

Tedward
Click to expand...

I have never seen anybody proving anything like that. In particular I don't think that a neck has one resonant frequency and that "the" dead spot happens when it's the same as that one resonance frequency. Just the fact that there are instruments with several dead spots (not caused by frets) disproves that.

It's safe to say that the less you rely on wood and the more on hard, predictable material the lower the chance of dead spots is.
 

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