I've been building for a while now and like most of us, my instruments are built with a straight piece of 1.5" wide wood.
I've come to really like playing with a straight fingerboard with no taper. Now I'm starting to wonder why all mass produced stringed instruments have a tapered necks. I don't find them any more comfortable or accessible to play then a pin straight neck. In fact I find having evenly spaced strings from nut to saddle much easier to play.
Is there a reason for tapered fingerboards that I'm missing?
Replies
Children's hands, and women's hands, arn't as large as men's, and some people's fingers are stubby, and some are long. Asking this question, ask yourself, why people who golf have their clubs tailored made for them. None of us are the same, so without making custom guitars for each person, which would be costly, they taper them, to make them easier to play. If your making a 6 stringed instrument, betting if it isn't tapered, you wouldn't sell very many, if any at all.
I guess my question was really about why the bridge end fanned out.
Thanks Anonymous Pick for your comments about room for vibration at the bridge end.
Many of the best, Hendrix and Vaughn to name two, make extensive use of their thumb which they wrap around the neck then over their low E. Much of their distinctive phrasing comes from being able to to this on a thinned and tapered neck.
The neck gets wider by the body because the string spacing gets wider by the bridge . The string spacing is wider on the body/ bridge to make it comfortable to pick, and strum , and the strings need to vibrate wider there with hard strumming . hence spaced wider. It tapers on the other end to be comfortable playing. Neck tapers make getting chord shapes far easier because the neck tends to get more slender where the frets are further apart, making the reach/ finger stretch easier.
Biggest reason = ergonomics.
A 3 / 4 stringer cbg is already thin necked and wide spaced at bridge . so not much of an issue , besides preference and looks . the same spacing at the nut does not matter with the already thin neck . But add 3 more strings and 2wice the width , and you would quickly get the hand cramp that i'm sure young Vulcan's get practicing Spock's greeting . ;-)
Haven't a clue - probably because you play more chords and the thin end so you have to reach less, but that's a guess...