Welcome to the Karl Longbottom Guitars Blog

27 Jun

A few new things from us in 2026

Welcome

Hello there, and welcome to the first entry in our new blog. Here is where I plan to keep you all updated on news, coming events and maybe even my thoughts on guitar construction.... Thanks for being here and see you all for the next one.

Headstocks

“Longbottom” will appear alongside my logo on both six aside, and three aside headstocks from now onward. This is something that I've been wanting to do for some time now and I have eventually settled on a font that I'm truly happy with. Here's the new designs

Truss rod access

Moving forward, all bolt on necks will now come with a spoke wheel adjuster positioned between the 21st and 22nd frets. This will still be a traditional single compression rod as I believe that they are tonally superior to a two way adjustable rod. Two way adjustable rods work very well but there's always a small gap between the rods or rods and bar (depending on design) and that creates a tonal compromise. The traditional curved rod fits tight into the neck which promotes good tonal transfer .

I've kept the adjustment at the heel of the neck for two reasons, an access hole at the headstock end creates weakness should an accident occur, and I believe that it looks better to have a clean un-molested headstock. For the traditional die-hards who love both the traditional look, and also like slipping the neck (possibly a few times) to do seasonal adjustments to their truss rods, then a heel end adjustment nut will be available on request.

Karl Longbottom