Just trying to get some thoughts and opinions from my fellow builders. When you make 4/5 stringers, do you taper your necks? It doesn't really pay to taper a 3 stringer, and it seems most 6 stringers are tapered, but in between it varies. How do you do it, and why?
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The taper effect helps with fingering chords - wider for the upper frets closer to the bridge - closer together for the lower frets close to the nut. If your playing in a "open" tuning where chords are made with one finger straight across like most CBG's, then a taper doesn't matter.
Richey Kay does 1st class C B G necks.practical and pretty,i would suggest for a 3 or 4 stringer 1st up,a horizontal taper is a more playable benefit,but a lateral taper looks awesome
I think it is just personal preference. I started tapering my necks on my last few builds and like the way they are turning out. Here is a pic of a 4 stringer I'm working on at the moment. It is tapered on the sides and has a slight taper on the back of the neck. It will also have a slight back angle when mounted in the box.
Richey Kay has some great How-to's on here on tapering fretboards and necks with nothing more then hand tools ;-)
I taper everything these days (3, 4 & 5) stringers. I even tapered a short 20" scale CBG. My favorite player these days is the taper-neck three stringer.
I find the taper neck a little easier to play when fretting notes. For slide it doesn't matter much.
Once I had completed a simple taper fixture that fit into the slide groove on my table saw, cutting tapers became pretty much an no-brainer.
I'm away from home at the moment, but will drive back on Wednesday. I'll get a photo posted by Thursday. The taper jig for the table saw is actually quite simple, but is all that is needed.
I think if you play either slide or on the lower part(first position) no barr chords or leads it makes sense not to taper. lap steel guitars are not tapered. However since I play up and down the neck the upper frets which are closer together it gets awkward to play. Especially shorter scale lengths.
I've been tapering them lately (sides and bottom) since that is what my customer(s) are requesting. Rough cut on a band saw, then rasp, spokeshave, sandpaper. Works fine. Nut width determined by overhang, string pack diameters, and spacing. The bridge/tailpiece end I generally have a material size constraint -- 1-1/2 fretboard and tailpiece stock, but I do workaround if need be. My six stringer I laminated together stock for a wider fretboard.
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The taper effect helps with fingering chords - wider for the upper frets closer to the bridge - closer together for the lower frets close to the nut. If your playing in a "open" tuning where chords are made with one finger straight across like most CBG's, then a taper doesn't matter.
Richey Kay does 1st class C B G necks.practical and pretty,i would suggest for a 3 or 4 stringer 1st up,a horizontal taper is a more playable benefit,but a lateral taper looks awesome
I taper all of my necks these days, with hand tools. Here's how I do it:
http://www.cigarboxnation.com/profiles/blogs/how-to-taper-a-cigar-b...
Richey Kay has some great How-to's on here on tapering fretboards and necks with nothing more then hand tools ;-)
I taper everything these days (3, 4 & 5) stringers. I even tapered a short 20" scale CBG. My favorite player these days is the taper-neck three stringer.
Once I had completed a simple taper fixture that fit into the slide groove on my table saw, cutting tapers became pretty much an no-brainer.
Oh, yea. A tapered neck looks good on most boxes.
Hey Tom, how about a pic of your tapering device?
Hi Thumper.
I'm away from home at the moment, but will drive back on Wednesday. I'll get a photo posted by Thursday. The taper jig for the table saw is actually quite simple, but is all that is needed.
I think if you play either slide or on the lower part(first position) no barr chords or leads it makes sense not to taper. lap steel guitars are not tapered. However since I play up and down the neck the upper frets which are closer together it gets awkward to play. Especially shorter scale lengths.
Don
Those were my thoughts, too! Thanks for sharing!
I've been tapering them lately (sides and bottom) since that is what my customer(s) are requesting. Rough cut on a band saw, then rasp, spokeshave, sandpaper. Works fine. Nut width determined by overhang, string pack diameters, and spacing. The bridge/tailpiece end I generally have a material size constraint -- 1-1/2 fretboard and tailpiece stock, but I do workaround if need be. My six stringer I laminated together stock for a wider fretboard.
Huntz
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