Ebony and truss rod: two ways to reinforce the neck

If you ask a luthier about the wood of the guitar, the answer will always be the same: “it is alive”. This is because, even after the drying process, the wood retains its resin. Depending on the weather, this fact can make the wood grow or wane, or what is the same, the guitar can be deformed.

However, a good drying process, an accurate treatment of the woods and a correct assembly ensures the durability of a guitar.

Besides that, the luthiers have an extra trick: the reinforcement.

High quality classical guitars always have a reinforcement on the back of the neck with some especially resistent and stable wood, such as Ebony. In Manuel Rodríguez, the guitar necks are always reinforced with Ebony strips. That ensures that, even if the years pass and the weather changes, the instrument remains stable. A guitar with neck reinforcement is synonymous of durability.

But this technique not always works. In fact, acoustic and bass guitars have another type of reinforcement: a truss rod.

The truss rod of a guitar is a thin metal bar introduced along the neck to make it much more stable and, above all, resistent to the pressure of the metal strings of the acoustic guitars.