Whew, that took a bit longer than I thought - but valuable learning experience.
So I know the skunk stripe is how the truss rod is installed, but I thought maybe the channel would go all the way through. Plus I knew I could get the fret board off, I wasn't as keen to try taking the stripe out straight up.
Anyway, pulled the 22nd fret and nut and drilled a small hole in the slots for some positioning dowels when it goes back together - pretty sure I saw that in one of Frankies threads, good tip.
Then, lots of heat and steam and a really fine stainless scraper that I sharpened the edge of. Getting it started cleanly is the hardest part. Apart from that it's mostly paitence getting it hot enough. Came off pretty easily and cleanly in the end.
Of course - no channel, which I half expected. So now I can see that the rod actually runs and an angle through the neck, which I thought was interesting. So I drilled a hole in the dowel plug in the heel where the end of the rod is. I went to put a screw in it to pull it out and it just disintegrated. Easy to replace, but I wonder if it was contributing being so soft and spongy.
I then initially tried to steam the skunk stripe and carefully lever it out. Which did not work lol. So I'll be replacing that. Looking online it seems like destruction is pretty much the only option here.
So I drilled a bunch of holes along the length and using a cheapy narrow chisel I carefully chiseled it out.
Flipping it over, I noticed where the big lug in the heel had been acting against the neck wood - it was clearly pushing the wood in that area. Again, possibly another contributing factor to the adjustment 'relaxing' over a period of time.
So I drilled a small hole and used a little drift to tap the rod out. you can see how thin the wood is there and eventually I did tear it up a bit. All good though, I have an idea to reinforce it a bit more there.
Interesting how unlike the two way truss rod I put in the Deluxester it is. Rather than acting on itself and then in turn the wood, it applies the tension directly to the wood itself. So again, I think the design itself is contributing to the adjusting flaw. As I tighten, it's just squashing the wood and as it sits with the strings on over time it just squishes further. Does that make sense?
Anyway. So the plan now is to reinforce the areas where the rod acts and put an extra washer under the nut so I can get a few more turns out of it. I'll also steam and clamp the fretboard and the neck, separately, to makes sure they are as straight as possible for reassembly.
then glue it all back together and see how it goes.
Wish me luck.
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