Truss Rod for Hawaiian Lap Guitar?

[Russ Morin]

I have an old Maui Maid acoustic Hawaiian lap steel guitar. It has a round guitar neck with a vee profile. It came to me without a fretboard but otherwise intact. It was constructed without a truss rod. Before I put a new fretboard on, should I install a truss rod? I will be playing it in D tuning which I think is low tension. Opinions?

Thanks,

Russ

[Greg Mirken]

The ability to adjust relief obviously won't be an issue, but why not inlay a graphite rod under the fretboard? Besides adding stability, stiffening the neck should enhance sustain.

[Russ Morin]

Greg,
I was thinking a non-adjustable rod too. I bought a stainless steel square stock type that Martin used to use. And you're probably right about sustain. The lazy part of me was hoping to avoid making a jig to route a center line on a tapered neck :)

[Pierre-Antoine Roiron]

Damn lazy part... I have one too!

[FRANK]

all you really need is a router table and a fence to cut that truss rod slot and right size bit or smaller and make two passes .

[Rory]

My vote is for two carbon fiber rods placed in the neck and a nice hefty fretboard laid over that. No need for a jig- let the router guide follow the edges of the neck-equally in from both sides. Also, I wouldnt say D tuning is low tension. Run those gauges in a string tension calculator-John Pearse' D' set comes out around 200lbs tension. The carbon wont cost much and if you get that neck nice and stiff, then you can use decent string gauges on it. Lap steel with low tension strings does not play or sound as good-you want some resistance to the tone bar. Other thing with lighter gauges on a slide is you always end up sharpening the note when playing (string bends under the bar).
Rory