Petrzelka OM-M - Wenge with Structured Sides

[John Parchem]

Cool! That is some high end work. From what I see in the picture it looks like you are vertically laminating the neck so as seen from the back there will be the thin CF edges? Are you going to have a truss rod. I suspect that neck is going to stay right where you put it. I love the structured sides and your body shape.

[Daniel P]

Thanks John.

For the necks, they are a very traditional 2-piece, scarf joint on the outside.

On the inside there will be the hidden carbon D tube (maybe more of a C channel) carbon reinforcement, and hopefully one of my new ultra-light 2 way truss rods. Higher-tech inside, but invisible from the outside.

Looking at the guitar no one should notice anything unusual about its construction, except hopefully the quality of the build. When playing the intent is improved responsiveness and sustain through both the structured sides and the added stiffness in the neck. Long-term it should provide much greater stability, crack resistance for the sides, and ease of neck resets if needed.

[John Parchem]

Sorry I remember now you laid up the D tube. It will be interesting how hard the truss rod needs to work to bend the D tube as I believe unlike CF rods the D tube will actually stiffen the neck. I do think the structured sides will stiffen the sides keeping more of the sound in the top.

[Daniel P]

I've talked with at least one builder who's used just the carbon d/c tube, building relief into the neck/fingerboard, and didn't need a truss rod.

I'll include a truss rod in this first one to see how stable the neck is, but may build a personal guitar without the truss rod for experimentation.

There is a photo Jeremy Clark posted, balancing a full 5-gallon water jug on the tail end of an upright set of structured guitar sides (no top or back, just the blocks glued in) - it is that stiff.