Paul Beuscher guitar maybe a Castelluccia?

Patagontrout · August 2019

Great Setup Andy! I found out that the carbon fiber truss rod need to be installed vertically, so there is a need to route more than 8mm deep into the neck, which is just 15 mm thick, compared to 7mm for a normal truss rod. Still, I'm looking for carbon fiber truss rods around here but I'm giving second thoughts to the normal truss rod...Also I think I'll thin the ebony fretboard down to 7mm (from 9mm) in order to not make such a heavy neck (truss rod plus ebony).

Still in the planning process.

Saludos!

AndyW · August 2019

I used 2 x "Graphite Tone Truss Rod Classical Guitar" 325 x 8.6 x 4 mm - in each guitar, from ToneTech in UK

https://tonetechluthiersupplies.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/?q=graphite

your Beuscher's 14-fret neck will be longer, though, than both of my 12-fretters.

My Routing depth was about 9.2 mm, for the 8.6 mm depth, if I remember:

I was measuring carefully to ensure there was still about 4mm depth of wood below the channel

_A_

Bones · August 2019

You can order the carbon fiber rods from Stew Mac.

https://www.stewmac.com/MaterialsandSupplies/Truss_Rods/Carbon_fiber/Carbon_Fiber_Neck_Rods.html

ChrisMartin · August 2019

And just a warning about CF rods, don't bother with the cheap ones on offer from various Chinese Ebay sellers. They appear black and plasticy, they even may be made of carbon for all I know but they know nothing about HOW to use the stuff. Orientation of the fibers and curing under pressure in an autoclave are all sciences they haven't caught up with yet. For my first attempt at using CF rods I bought a pair of these cheap ones and found I could bend them easily just between one finger and thumb from both the thin, AND the thicker side, they were about as flexible as the wood I would have been replacing, But yes, if you use the proper ones they will be easy enough to fit and you will have no need for an adjustable steel truss rod.

Patagontrout · August 2019

Thanks for all your advice regarding CF rods. I've been doing some measurements in the neck and it really is not very thick, on the center has 15 mm but just 2 mm to each side of the center line goes down to 13 mm and 2 mm more goes down to 11 mm. I don't think it is properly capable of getting two cavities of 9 mm deep for the two CF rods. I think I'll go with the normal steel truss rod at the center, which will need a channel 8 mm deep at 15 mm neck thickness. Also, this neck doesn´t have a torsional bow, and the ebony fretboard should help on that regard.

Next weekend will see some action!

Bones · August 2019

Good call. BTW what is the neck material? Does it feel like it is fairly stiff or is it easy to flex by hand (visual flexing)?

Patagontrout · August 2019

It is Walnut and yes, the neck without the fretboard is easy to bend by hand. My main concern now is to get a neck that won't tilt too much to the neck, that would be unbalanced. The body is fairly light, and the truss rod plus the ebony fretboard will take its toll weight wise. Depending on that, I might take the fretboard thickness down to 6mm. That I'll check when the truss rod be installed.

Bones · August 2019

Yeah it will stiffen up a LOT when you add the fingerboard. But was just checking if you thought the walnut was RELATIVELY stiff (i.e. whether you felt like you needed the composite rods). Wood varies a lot in stiffness even within the same type of wood.

Patagontrout · November 2020

Hi dear gipsy guitar lovers,

I was in debt to tell you how it went the restoration of this guitar. Finally I changed the fretboard, put in a truss rod, made a new bone nut (instead of the plastic one), maintained the yellow candy tuners (they work great), made a new ebony bridge, changed the tailpiece and put savarez argentine strings on. And it sounds BIG, I am shocked as how loud this guitar can be.

Thanks to Castelluccia, Paul Beuscher and for all your amazing contributions to make this restoration a reality!