No Truss Rod

You may have to take the neck off to access it. Never understood such a design, but a lot of Fenders are that way.

 

It can be done, but it's not cheap. Probably easier and more cost effective to buy a new bass.

 

It could be a non-adjustible truss rod.

 

What bass is it?

 

It's quite possible that the builder didn't use one.

 

Affect sound? Not likely.

Will it start to bow? Probably. It's not guaranteed, but it's a safe bet that it will.

Have one installed? It'd be expensive, and pretty invasive. I can see 3 ways to do it:

1) The neck is routed from the back in a fixture to ensure consistent depth and straightness. A truss rod is installed, and a fillet is glued in place (like the Fender skunk stripe). The neck is then refinished, and a body modification may be necessary to add truss rod access.

2) The fretboard is removed and the neck is routed from the top, again in a fixture to ensure consistency and straightness. Truss rod access can be made at the head or the heel. If at the heel, the body may need to be modified to add truss rod access. The fretboard is then replaced, and it is quite likely that an entirely new board would have to be used. The neck will then have to be refinished.

3) An entirely new neck could be made.

So it's a labor intensive task regardless of which way you go. I would recommend #3, but I'd just replace the whole bass before I did that. A new neck by a custom builder can easily be more than $1000, and you can get some damn fine whole basses for less than that.

 

If the bass was designed not to have a truss rod it could be fine for years. There are lots of old Gibson guitars and mandolins out there that have survived a the better part of a century without truss rods. I played this bass for a decade with no issues whatsoever. No truss rod.

 

Yeah. It's possible. It's just not very likely. You can always hand-pick a few examples of trussless basses that are stable, but there will always be more that aren't.

 

Truth is I've seen way more instruments without truss rods that were just fine than cheap POS that they just "forgot" to put one in. Name me one brand or model that you know of that doesn't have a truss rod....the original Danos are the only one I can think of off the top of my head. ???

 

You don't see many old survivors without truss rods, because most of them don't survive.

I had a late 70s or early 80s Hondo. It was a crap bass. No truss rod, and a bow in the neck to make give an archer ideas.

Or do you mean "major" brand basses without truss rods? There aren't many, because basses need them. I'm really happy for you that you have a bass or two without a truss rod that are fine. But that is not the majority experience.

 

It could easily go either way here but I certainly wouldn't write the thing off as quick as you did especially considering the OP specifically stated it was hand built. It would probably be wise to reserve judgement until we see some pics.

 

Older Modulus

Wishbass.

 

Right. One for either side of the argument I guess....

 

Love to hear more about that bass you have there.