Hi all,
I've been thinking recently about the design I use for my necks, which is currently neck-though, with a recess carved out. As I use homemade boxes with thin lids, I need to accommodate bracing on the underside of the soundboard, throw pickups in the mix and I have a serious weak point. One of my 4 stringers has developed a bow, and I believe it is coming from the recess.
This is the recess cut out for a 3 stringer with a homemade box - this one is still solid but you get the idea of how much material I need to remove to allow for the fretboard standing proud of the soundboard, and also the bracing underneath.
The neck wood I have most easily available is oak, in lengths of roughly 1 metre, here is a proposed design in which the neck is cut and re-glued into supports.
[Apologies it's so poorly rendered - 5 minutes in Paint!]
The overlap forming the heel would be maximum about 150mm/6", the blocks underneath would be the same width as the neck, glued to the box and screwed from underneath to the neck - do you think this would be strong enough for a 3 or 4 stringer? (I haven't ventured into truss rods yet, nor do I have a router.) I feel that this needs to be the direction I move in so I can start messing about with resonators etc. without compromising the strength of the neck.
Your thoughts as always would be greatly appreciated.
Rick
Replies
[UPDATE]
I've now used this design on my last 3 builds, and the 4th is nearing completion. It works brilliantly, and I could have saved myself a lot of work and headaches if I'd used it earlier. I've updated the diagram to show what the final design looks like:
Rick
Richey, what is the purpose of the blocks on the underside of the neck through the box , just my curiosity
Antonio - those blocks are there to hold the neck at the right height and angle, and I screw the neck to the blocks through the box from underneath. I only use two, one at each end. I'll post a pic later so you can see mate.
ok mate , looking at your drawing just eliminate the little blocks and run your neck in a bit more and heel out a bit more stronger joint and stiffer neck. but i think thats what the chicken John vid is all about . anyway thats what i do with mine. when i glue up i make my heels as thick as I can and shape em down as i go . in any type of building engineering wise anytime you see a + in a diagram its usally a weak point. on the couple ive made where the necks got a bit thin in the rear ends ive made a suppliment side plate that i glueinto the box bottom on both sides .tight tolerance to the neck through. then when you glue up they take on a role as girders. this design works for train trestles so im sure it could hold 4 strings worth of tension. good luck with your experimenting mate. just for giggles I also very carefully poke my nose deep into the direction i want my neck to go as it ages. if it were on its own. then i take that bow and point it away from the top of the box. and construct hte neck that way. so it wants to not bow up toward the top of the box. one other hting to consider is grain pattern too.
Another way to deal with neck bow is with a tensioning system. No, not a truss rod; just attach an old E string from a medium bronze set to the heel with an eyelet screw, and another in the back of the headstock. Crank it tight to the neck, and your bow will be removed. You could even gouge out a small channel in the back of the neck to lay the string in, or get fancy and put an extra tuner on to tighten it up when necessary.
Properly glued that joint will be fine and depth-wise the resulting neck will accommodate pretty much any standard pickup. You show more overlap at the join than I use and I've not had any significant bowing in the neck or failures at the join.
You are using an excessive amount of blocking. A small block on each end of the box to provide proper height indexing and a 2" screw through the side of the tail end of the box into end of the neck piece is more than sufficient.
I've built using both tailpiece and pinned bridges without any noticeable difference in the effect of string tension on the necks.
There is no truss rod in that neck Richey,I've never used one on a 3 or 4 stringer.If you don't fancy a dovetail an alternative is to cut a slot the thickness of the box either side of the neck and just slot it in.This photo will give you the idea.Thanks for your comments on No's34 &35
That looks a bit more do-able. Thanks Michael!
Thanks for all of the feedback guys - I'll be using a few of these tips in my next build.
just my opinion richey,but agree with cb john,the more overlap you can include without affecting playability,the better tensile resistance you,ll get,taken to extremes it might even be able to go thru under your planned reso cone
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