Comment

Comment by Don Tucker on January 31, 2020 at 5:08pm

Years ago one of my personal guitars with an oak neck bow badly. My theory is oak is a poor choice for a neck because oak has inconsistent density. The dark streaks are much harder than the lighter coloured parts of oak. I believe that's why oak is not used for the necks of any factory made instrument that I'm aware of. I have used maple exclusively for many years now with no problems. I believe many factory made necks are maple for a reason. I also go one step further by sawing the neck blank down the middle, then turning the two pieces a quarter turn each before gluing them back together. The opposing grain makes the neck much stronger and also straighter. This may be overkill but I think it's worth the extra effort.

Comment by James Pobog on January 28, 2020 at 11:12am

Why not just slack the strings a bit?

Comment by Derek Rose on January 25, 2020 at 3:46am

A little bow can be good, it provides relief, but if it is such it makes the action too high it can be a problem. Just the addition of a fingerboard adds significant strength and should be plenty strong enough for 3 and 4 strings.

Shorter scale length significantly reduces the string tension too. I have made 6 string necks out of 2 pieces of oak, glued side-to-side with a 23 1/2" scale and an oak fingerboard (and a 4th piece for the heal inside the box) and have held up for 2 years so far. Have also used the steel shelving hanger supports (the 3 sided kind from Home Depot, Lowes, etc.) which is very stiff resist twist and bow, like on this build: 

Comment by Taffy Evans on January 24, 2020 at 5:13pm

Hi mike, what a bummer, Yes a bar would do the trick, but you would have to remove the bow first. If you are talking about future necks, yep easier to do before fingerboard goes on. I would have thought that Poplar may bee too soft for a fingerboard, but I could be wrong.

Taff