So I want to try a bolt on neck and am wondering how much bracing and where does it all need to go. I have seen several options but am not sure which way to go. I am looking for the simplist way with the least amount of bracing to the box. Can anyone out there help me? I thank you all in advance.
Matt
Replies
Matt
I
changed that box from a white one to brown. The reason is that the white one had no sound. It turns out that the top was made of MDF, not real wood. Fooled me. Too bad, it was really nice looking.
Here is how the strings are terminated. I need to do a little reinforcing inside the box in that area. It gets a lot of strain. Also pictured is my non glue neck joint. It seems to be holding up fine, although it is new. The critical part is the glue joint under the two side pieces. I want to be able to remove my necks without breaking a glue joint.
I screwed and glued from the inside after bracing inside the box where the neck meets. I sued two screws one towards the front and one to the back of the instrument to try and stop it pulling forward under tension.
The neck had a butt joined heel flush with the outside.
It seems to hold ok but I found the whole neck bent up when the strings were tensioned until I glued the box lid shut. Maybe internal bracing on the sound board would prevent that.
The glued down box is fine and still playing well after six months.
Keep building!
One way to determine if the sound board needs bracing is to put a straight edge over it, fore and aft and look to see if there is a noticeable dip near the center of the box. If so, you need bracing. This one is pretty bad.
Matt,
I have been building CBUkes, Mandolins, & guitars for a few years and have found this way to work well for me:
http://www.cigarboxnation.com/photo/albums/mandolin-original-neck-b...
Feel free to look around at some of my other builds on my page. Hope this helps.
Best Regards,
Chuck
Matt,
I am going through some of that too. I have one with a bolt on neck, one with a "slide in" neck that goes in 2 1/2 " ir so and another slide in that is glued. Is it a concert? tenor? Mine are soprano and concert. With a bolt on I would add another layer of wood to the front of the box. Then make some vertical ribs and glue them to the front and the bottom. I would also put in glue blocks where the front meets the sides and bottom.