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Premium Pine

Posted by Ted Stahl on October 5, 2017 at 9:33am in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion

"After cutting 6 necks from 2 - 1x2x8ft Poplar. When I got to the last scarf cut, I read the UPC tag - premium pine..Any problems with bowing?" I built one neck to test. I used 3 E strings (52 g). After retuning a couple of times (new strings), on the 3th day there was only a 1mm bow, and it had stayed fairly in tune. I was looking at the canjo videos with Ben Baker, and he mentioned that larger dia. strings put more stress on the neck. Has anybody out there had a problem with using premium pine on a 3-string, or should I use this batch for canjos? Thanks

Test Neck.jpg

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Replies

  • Ted Stahl October 11, 2017 at 10:43pm

    Thanks Wade.

  • Wade October 11, 2017 at 7:13pm

    A shorter scale, say 24" and lighter strings can make a big difference.

  • Uncle John October 10, 2017 at 10:26pm

    That canjo looks great.  I am of the school that pine is fine if you add a glued up finger board.

    • Ted Stahl > Uncle John October 10, 2017 at 11:15pm

      Thanks Uncle John. The neck is all one piece, just painted the lower half. Used copper wire for frets.

  • Ted Stahl October 10, 2017 at 5:42pm

    Thanks everyone for the info. I decided to play it safe and make 5 canjos. Here is a picture of the first one.306643482?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024

  • Jerry Jordan October 9, 2017 at 10:14am

    Ditto what Chris said,.,,.I have used Pine for half my builds.,,.the hardwood fingerboard does add strength.,.,and I know of a well known Ebay seller that has built and sold in excess of 3000 Pine necked CBG's with good results.,.,I say If your concerned you could always make that batch "high strung like a dulcimer .,.,

  • Paul Craig October 6, 2017 at 3:47pm

    I used Pine for the neck on one of my 4 stringers. I knew it would probably bow, so I glued on a Red Oak fretboard. It still bowed. I then removed the fretboard and cut a channel for a trussrod, installed a non-adjustable trussrod and glued the fretboard back on. The the headstock bowed a little, but now it's stable.

    If your Pine or Poplar neck is flatsawn and doesn't have a trussrod, I wouldn't use more than 3 strings for a scale longer than 25.5"

    If you can't find any quarter sawn boards, take a couple of flat sawn boards and glue one on top of the other. Then draw a neck with headstock and heel from a side view, cut it out on a bandsaw, flip it over 90 degrees and glue a fretboard on it and you'll have a multi-piece quarter sawn neck. LOL

    Lots of ways to strengthen a neck if you sit back and think about it awhile.
    Also remember that the wood you get at the big hardware stores are most likely still green.

  • gary herget October 6, 2017 at 7:39am

    Using a hardwood fret board is going to strengthen the neck and help resist bowing.

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