Workshop: Heat Needle & Carbon Fiber Rod

Here are a couple shots from when I was working on an 1890s Bohmann parlor guitar. The fretboard needed a reglue, anyway, so while I was prepping it for that, I also reset the neck and installed a carbon fiber reinforcement rod.

The first pic shows the StewMac soldering-iron-heat-needle warming-up the joint so I can remove (and then reset) the neck. It also shows the new slot I've cut in the neck to epoxy that carbon fiber rod into.

The second pic shows how the new rod fits right into that slot -- when I glue the board, I coat the pocket with epoxy and plop the rod in it, wiping-away excess. Then I can use Titebond to affix the fretboard as-normal. I can then both clamp the fretboard and rod in place at the same time. The epoxy will fill any small gaps that are in the new channel from cutting it.

Adding CF rods really does stiffen and reinforce a neck, but I only suggest relying on them for very light-tension string sets (say, 46w-10 or similar) if the neck is thin. I usually think one or two thin (but deeper) steel bars are the best reinforcement you can get for easy-installation options. Unfortunately, this neck was too thin to install something like that, so I went with the shallower, lighter, CF for this application.