Quote:
Originally Posted by Theleman
Strange some guitar necks bend in 20 years, but some other more vintage guitars from 1950s and 1960s had straight good necks.
Most of them don't have truss rod.
Is truss rod in classical guitar new trend?
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I believe the main problem is right there in the dates. Finding straight, stable wood was easier in the past. So many amazing, straight grained pieces from MASSIVE trees were used for bridges and other infrastructure projects. Now that those old projects are being replaced with modern materials and many luthiers are reclaiming those woods.
As far as truss rods; ideas appeared as early as 1908, but a Gibson employee named Thaddeus McHugh filed the first patent in 1921 (1). I don't know when they first started appearing on classical guitars though. Given the lengthily history of classical guitars, I would consider that more modern.
I have still had a steel string guitar WITH a truss rod develop a twisted neck. Just bad wood. A truss rod will not guarantee no twisting, it will allow adjustments through the years though. Many steel string guitars still need neck resets as there is not enough saddle left to adjust. So a truss rod does not solve certain neck problems. My 6 string bass has 2 truss rods and a 3 piece neck. So twists are very adjustable there.
Truss rods may have a negative impact on tone since I doubt the metal helps much. This may be why ebony reinforcement is still so common. Also, standard nylon string exhibit less than half the tension of standard steel strings.
At least... that's what I think.
(1)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truss_rod