You know the way the neck as it enters the box is typically touching the top (soundboard, right?) the entire way? I don't take the neck through the back of the box, i use a mandolin tailpiece so I just screw it into the end of the box under the mandolin hinge.
I'm thinking that the neck does impart some vibration most of it must come from the bridge itself. So i was thinking maybe I should give the soundboard more free space to vibrate and trim away some of the wood from the neck that would touch the top. I leave a good inch where the bridge would be (like a bracer) and a 1/4 inch where the neck enters and hits the back end. Where i cut away, it would only be enough to let the top soundboard vibrate without hitting it, say 1/8 deep cut.
Has anyone done this? Does it make sense to try?
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Not sure I was clear in my explanation. Basically i trim away 1/8" of the top of the neck away from the top so that only a strip of neck contacts the top where it enters, under the bridge, and at the end of the neck. Does this help the sound volume or quality?
thanks, couldn't be clearer. don't even need a support under the bridge. cool.
yes you should have a support under the bridge as otherwise the build will be unstable and sound too boxy, a block of wood will help support it, and the whole length of the neck pieceshould be braced within the length of the box...
the diagram above is for an acoustic build, a mixture of versions 1 and 3 is roughly
about right with the fretboard much higher, bridge at the supported end of the box with a keener break angle and a through neck supported with a brace glued along the length of the box
well anybody can try all different ways but a lot of energy is lost through an unsupported lid , if you sacrifice a muffled boxy sound for stability there will be a better compromise, and will sound better through the amp :-)
it is the neck that takes all the stress, not the box which should only act as a resonator..
I agree with you Wayfinder. I am more into acoustic sound and have never even considered having the neck touch the top at the bridge. That is exactly where you want the vibration going on. I respect Slowpaw's work and opinion, but disagree on that one.
Interesting. I was thinking if one has neck to top contact under the bridge, you might as well have total neck/bridge contact. In your dowel scenario, I am assuming that there is a hole drilled through the neck for the dowell to pass through without contacting the neck. This is an interesting discussion.
this topic comes up alot ,, and you will have some folks say a space between the lid and neck is better .. others say glued right to the top is better and the whole guitar is solid and vibrates . .
and in another thread ,( almost as in a perfect world ) , someone that actually built 2 guitars the same , same box, scale , and all , except one with a space, and one without , said .. he really couldn't tell the difference but leaned on the solid glued right to the lid sounding, and feeling better .
so there's your "hummmm" answer for the day . ;-)
well there 's the big compromise that keeps our threads going, honestly I've tried every way there is and an acoustic build is completely different from an electric, two different animals but the neck should still bear all the stress, otherwise it will be very difficult to keep in tune :-)
as in most things there are a lot of variables ;-)
I bet somebody posts "WTF it's only a home made box guitar".....well if a thing's worth doing... ;-)
it would seem i , and my post agree .
;-)
not to mention quality control issues . how long before the lid spoons ? etc etc ..
there are many different ways to skin a cat as they say - the quick messy way, the safe way, the sensible way, the informed way and the common sense way....poor pussy! ;-)
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