Graphite rod support v laminated necks

[hemptoast]

Hey Phil, your price for an Aussie-made bass is indeed attractive!

however, i note that most of the specs are for a one-piece or laminated necks (3 pieces for example). What are your thoughts of using graphite rod support to add some stability to the neck or do you prefer laminated necks?

I am keen but working out the specs at the moment, and not sure if you offer graphite rod support in addition to laminated necks, cheers mate

Henry

[Phil]

I've used them in the past, I pretty much found that for 6 strings or less its not really necessary, for laminated necks, especially those with harder stiff woods like Purpleheart or Wenge. For Fender style necks I'd probably put them in a 6 string for the added stifness but wouldn't for a 4 or 5. I don't mind putting them in necks if customers requests them though.

The price list is really a bare-bones list to give a good idea of what the prices are like, there's heaps of other options I could have put in there, like the carbon rods but that could have evolved into pages and pages of options really fast that would have made the list a bit hard to read and overly complicated. I pretty much discuss these other types of options with customers over PM's/e-mails. Each custom build is usually a pretty big discussion between the two of us deciding on all the small bits and pieces that will make up the whole of the instruments, its not just the woods and colours but often can get as complicated as to which string T to use or what saddles on the bridge or which veneer to put between the headstock and head plate. Its not unusual to exchange over 50 e-mails before the final design is done with.