Hi guys,

Just curious about something I recently noticed and I was hoping some of you may have the answer?

Ok, so the 'skunk' stripe running down the back of a one piece maple neck is where the truss rod is inlayed.

I was always under the impression that when a guitar was built using a rosewood fingerboard, the stripe was no longer necessary as the truss rod could now be inlayed from the front before the fingerboard was attached.

I only just really noticed that this is not really the case. Sure, some rosewood boarded guitars do not have the skunk stripe, but I've recently noticed that a lot do have both the rosewood board and the stripe.

Can anyone tell me the reason for this? Is it just an aesthetic thing?

Thanks for any input

Russ

That's an interesting question and one i'm sure will be answered in many ways. Personally I don't care where they put the truss rod in. Functionally it makes sense to carve out the back or install prior to attaching the rosewood board as opposed to boring a long hole. Anyway, I think the skunk stripe is cool and adds to the beauty of the guitar.

Hi TC: in the '50s Fender made one piece maple necks. At the very start they didn't have a trussrod - which immediately proved to be a mistake. So the rod had to get in there somewhere and what they did was route a slot from the back of the neck and drill a hole joining it from the heel end. The rod was dropped in there with its adjuster accessible through that hole in the heel. Then to fill the rest of the slot ready for the back to be carved a fillet of walnut was inserted - the "skunk stripe".

By the end of the '50s Fender gave in to requests for rosewood fingerboards like other manufacturers' instruments, first in the form of a curved veneer of rosewood and then the familiar "slab" 'board. Once you have a separate fingerboard you can route your trussrod channel much more easily from the front of the neck before covering it with the 'board. This is how most guitars are made and how Fender made them through most of the '60s. Even maple fronted necks were done with separate fingerboards at this period and therefore no skunk stripe.

However, the rear installed trussrod and consequent stripe of walnut was kind of a Fender trademark, and people missed it and also the one-piece maple neck and fingerboard. So eventually Fender went back to that form of construction and ever since have done both one-piece and rosewood 'board necks by that method.

Nowadays the only necks you will find without a skunk stripe are mostly '60s Reissue models, which are true to the construction of that era.

Any help?

Cheers - C

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Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

Thanks for the in depth reply Ceri.

I did consider that is was more of an aesthetic feature to have the stripe on a rosewood boarded guitar, but I wasn't sure if there may be some other reasoning behind it, so thank you for clearing that up for me.

I have to admit, a maple neck, be it a rosewood or maple fingerboard, Fender or otherwise, it just doesn't look 'right' without it!

Russ

Yeah I think he's backwards on this point, but his other points on the history of Fender necks are pretty spot on.

Hello gents: conflicting photographic evidence on that. For instance:









There again, like you I expect, I can find pictures that reverse that position.

I was very young when all those photos were taken and busy with other things. Wide open to additional info from those who remember better...

Cheers - C

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Interesting to see the difference between slab and veneer, I'd side with ceri on the details of the dates (he's not often wrong), but despite that I would imagine matching the curves on those two planks to be painstaking work. No wonder they went to slab.

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My Rig: Guitar into Pedals then into Amps and out into Speakers.

The lam-board was introduced in mid '63. However, existing stocks of slab-board necks were used until the supply was exhausted (sometime in late summer of '66 from what I've been able to discern), most notable on Mustangs and Duosonics.

You will never see a lam-board dated earlier than 1963.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

Yeah Lam Boards came after Slab boards, hence why 62 Reissues have the slab board and a 65 reissue has a round lam. Like all things Fender they never throw away parts which is why there are slab boards with later dates than 62 early 63

+1, Yogi.

A real rarity is a mid/late '63 lam-board with the original 12-fret dot spacing......I've seen a few but there aren't many.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

Hi gents: just checking in.

Far as the 'boards are concerned: sure, if you say so.

I was busy throwing my toys out the pram at that time so ready to take the word of those who remember better.

What interests me more from a building point of view is the suggestion in an earlier post above that boring a long hole for a trussrod might be an alternative to routing it. Now that's certainly something I'd like to see someone doing...

Cheers - C

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That would be a sight to see. How on earth could you prevent the bit drift?

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The design of each element should be thought out in order to be easy to make and easy to repair.
Leo Fender

[quote][/quote]Ceri wrote:
What interests me more from a building point of view is the suggestion in an earlier post above that boring a long hole for a trussrod might be an alternative to routing it. Now that's certainly something I'd like to see someone doing...

Cheers - C


That would be a sight to see. How on earth could you prevent the bit drift?

I'm not a guitar builder but i've drilled many deep holes in metal with minimal drift. The drill we used is a "Gun Drill" with pressurized coolant sent thru the drill shaft and thru the specially ground carbide tip which not only helps cool the bit but also flushes out the chips at the same time. When drilling wood you might not need coolant but i think if you supplied air to the tip along with a high speed and low feed you could accomplish the same outcome as with metal. I must say I'd be more than a little surprised if this technique had never been tried. If it worked do you think the additional mass of virgin wood could be an advantage in some way? Does the skunk stripe and optional rosewood board apply counter pressure to neck warp?

Perhaps food for thought,
Bob

Hi sunburst: there's another reason you wouldn't try drilling a hole through two feet of neck wood for a trussrod, even if you could make the bit travel perfectly straight across that length:



And although a modern double action trussrod runs through a straight channel it is rectangular in section, not round, so you couldn't bore that one either:



Cheers - C

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