AdamOnBass Posted December 9, 2017 Share Posted December 9, 2017 Hello, I'm about to build a homemade EUB and I'm wondering if I'll need to bother with a truss rod? It's going to be a fairly crude build. Hear me out here... It's going to be a short scale (30") made from a centre block of poplar and mahogany laminate. It'll be four strips of 19mm x 70mm x 1200mm glued together with the seams perpendicular to the fretboard. I'll shape the neck with a spoke shave, sandpaper and a lot of cursing, leaving most of the depth there so it'll be a pretty fat neck. Then I'll glue on a purpleheart fretboard and radius it to 7.25". So there's going to be plenty of wood mass there and I'm hoping to laminate construction will give it some stability - what do you guys think? Truss rod or not? Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPJ Posted December 9, 2017 Share Posted December 9, 2017 Not seen many short scale EUBs, the Kydd is the only one that springs to mind. What made you decide on that scale length? Most 3/4 DB/EUBs are 40-42 inch scale. If you are after a db tone with a shorter scale I don't think you'll manage that, especially in the EUB format. I'm not saying don't do it, just that it'll probably end up sounding like a fretless bass guitar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdamOnBass Posted December 9, 2017 Author Share Posted December 9, 2017 It's definitely not going to sound much like a db - I was going to chuck a piezo under the bridge to approximate the sound but I'm using a couple of standard ceramic pickups too. I haven't ruled out gluing some body wings to it at a later date but for now I'm going for an EUB stick format. I was more concerned about the neck remaining stable without a truss rod. I've not got much experience with db's but I understand that they cope with the tension by having huge necks and small radius fingerboards. I was wondering what people's experiences were with the stability of the necks? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad3353 Posted December 9, 2017 Share Posted December 9, 2017 There were many acoustic and electric guitars made in the '50s that had chunky necks and no truss rod that are still fine today (early Hofners, for instance...). From the dimension given, I'd see no problem in stringing that up. Any tension that'll bend that would need an iron girder to counter it, anyway..! Our Eldest is building his very first electric, and has chosen a fine double-action truss rod for it, but the neck is far slimmer than your db neck. I'd suggest 'No truss rod'; it'll be an unnecessary complication for no real benefit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdamOnBass Posted December 9, 2017 Author Share Posted December 9, 2017 32 minutes ago, Dad3353 said: Any tension that'll bend that would need an iron girder to counter it, anyway..! Ha! That's what I'm thinking! I'm really limited by the tools at my disposal here - I don't have access to a router so if I can avoid a truss rod then all the better. Hence the poplar for some added stiffness. Good luck to your lad with his build, it's a rewarding experience! I still have mine - a p bass with no truss rod (guess what happened to that neck). A new neck later it's still one of my favourites twenty something years later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad3353 Posted December 9, 2017 Share Posted December 9, 2017 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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