starting work on my 1st guitar - going to build a 4 string, thru-neck with a nice deep Magna box. My question is - should i make a scarfed joint at the head knowing that a)i'm not putting in a truss rod, and b) i want the guitar to be playable (not just slide guitar). I'm also most likely going to put a fretboard on top of the neck. thanks in advance.
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I live in an apartment so power tools are out for me.
My solution for scarf joints was to build a hand miter box.
The saw blade is at 90° to the box and I used the blade to setup a miter guide.
The miter guide is simply a straight 1x2 long enough, be generous, to clamp the neck for the cut.
The trick is to start with the miter guide parallel to the saw blade and move the 'far end' until you have the angle you want.
I found it easier to make the cuts with the miter guide and neck stock away from me and sticking out of the back of the box.
I suppose you could set the guide up as adjustable but I screwed and glued mine down at 74° from the box giving me a 16° scarf joint.
One of the first things I built with this miter box was was a parallelogram to glue up two scarf joints at a time.
John
As I have no table saw, a few of my instruments were made with scarf joints done with hand tools. It can be done, but these days I prefer to spare myself the effort and instead build "slotted straight head stocks". I find they provide more of a break angle over the nut than a straight headstock and so I rarely have to use string trees. To make the slot, I drill a series of holes using ever increasing sized drill bits until the holes almost meet, then I use a chisel to cut out the rest of the scrap wood in the area where the slot should be, and then I clean up the slot with a wood rasp, files and sand paper. However, on my last 12 or 15 instruments, most of the necks were built up by laminating together maybe 6 or 7 slats of 0.5cm by 3.0cm cherry trimwood. I have found that by cutting the inner 2 (or 3) slats about 12cm short, I can leave space for the slot so I don't have to bother cutting the slot. Then, I plug the end of the slot by gluing 2 ( or 3) one inch pieces of trim wood together to form a "plug", and after that has dried, glue it into place at the head end of the slot. I tend to simplify my designs so they are easier to build, yet perform well. You might want to check out my paddle box stick dulcimer designs, especially if you don't have cigar boxes to work with, or if you would like to build stick dulcimers with their traditional body design.
-Rand.
I put em top .. seems to make a stronger joint ,, plus u hide it with the fretboard
With scarf joints, either way will work..I prefer the 'headstock over' way..as the joint is hidden..and more importantly reinforced, by the fretboard. Doing it the other way you'll have a visible joint in the headstock, which you can cover with a headstock veneer if you want to. You don't need anything fancy to cut the angle, just a sharp handsaw will do - it's the clean-up you do before gluing that makes for a good joint - in this respect my bench sander is great..but handtools, a steady hand and sharp eye will do the job.
Scarf joints are actually very simple but then I have a tablesaw. You can also do them with a handsaw and clean up with a hand plane. After you've done one you'll like them for the simplicity plus they offer a lot of opportunity for embellishment. Just make sure you get enough angle, somewhere around 13 degrees is pretty good.
thanks for the input guys. i have ~ 5 ft neck stock, so i'm going to try making a scarf joint at least once(i can afford to screw up twice). do you recommend putting the 5" headstock piece over the neck or under? - ive seen arguments for both...
I put them under, not sure if there is a compelling reason for one over the other.
For simplicity's sake just do a 'cut back' Fender style headstock - the fretboard will help you get that bit more break angle over the nut. A scarf jointed "Gibson" style headstock does nothing for the strength or playabiity; Playability is down to the accurate making of the fretboard, fretting and the action.
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