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Can I pick your brain about a through-neck that I am trying to construct?

If so, here's what I am trying to do and if you think it won't work - please let me know!

I want to build a through-neck from a "sandwich" of woods (curly maple/cocobolo/curly maple/cocobolo/curly maple) in the Gibson style with the headstock tilting back 13 degrees.

Here's my question: I am putting this together as a larger piece of wood: 41" long, 4" wide (widest part of headstock is 3.8") and I want to make it 5" deep. I am trying to make it large enough to cut the whole thing including the angled back headstock out of this single block of wood. Do you think I should go with 6" deep?

I want this thing as strong as possible with no chance of breaking at the very top of the neck. Also thinking of including a volute(sp?).

Is this crazy? Total waste of wood? Do I have to go with the cut & glued headstock route?

Thank you for reading!!! This is my first build and want to do it right. I have minimal amount of tools and just want to make it simple.

Jim

I don't know about the specific measurements for the guitar you are wanting to build, but using the single piece of laminated wood to cut the neck from is pretty standard.

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Chris

Jim I think a more effecient way to use your wood might look something like this. This image is not exactly to scale of what you want to do, but it has a std LP neck profile that I added a volute arc to. The rectangle measures 41 long by 6 wide. If you used a band saw to rough your individual pieces from you should be able to get your neck blank from two pieces of wood yielding two laminations per board.

If you like, I can draw this to scale to show you want a 41" neck blank would look like along with the two pieces of wood needed to get the complete blank.

My thinking is, if you can get two necks for the cost of one

Mike

It's only a waste if you think it's a waste. First 4" is way too wide. The widest part of the neck, besides the headstock is less than 3". Add wings to the headstock. Make sure your center laminates are within the thinnest part of the neck, at the nut. Otherwise you'll run out of maple in the middle of the neck.

Draw out what you want to do. I'll bet you won't have to angle it back as far as Gibbys do. Plus that acute angle on the headstock is famous for breaking. Laminates will be stronger, plus adding a volute will help too.

Play around with it. I've already wasted more wood than that. My advice would be to NOT use primo wood first time around. I have a stack of walnut, Ipe and maple I bought cheap to learn on. I've already screwed up two necks. No big deal. Learn on cheap wood. Then once you feel comfortable get the good stuff.

Anyone know if anyone offers the service of cutting the neck and body portion from a composite for a fee? If so, can you point me in their direction? I don't want to screw this one up!

Would wings on the headstock be risky? I don't want anything to snap a couple years down the road. But, I am new to this and not sure what the risks are.

I was thinking of carving the whole thing out of one giant piece of wood, with a volute, would solve the neck snapping issue with the tilted back Gibson necks.

The entire length of the guitar is about 41". If anyone has the time or interest I would certainly send the wood once it's dried and smoothed if you want to rough cut it. I can do all the sanding and whatnot. I just don't have a woodshop and don't know anyone that does! And I'm not going to chisel the darn thing! Again, if anyone offers this service, can you point me in their direction? I don't want to screw this one up! It's worth the cost to get it done right. Everything else I can do.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Jim

Hey Jim, that sounds like a fairly complicated project for a first build... I think it would be best to build a traditional guitar or two in order to learn the fundamentals before branching out into something like this.

Trev

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http://www.PeakeGuitars.com

I agree. But, I don't have the tools and machines needed. I am trying to take every step as carefully as I can and see what I come up with.

If there's something I don't address, then I probably just missed it

1- Gluing wings onto the headstock adds strength as you can orient the grain in the wings in exactly the right way. It also saves a LOT of wood (as mentioned, the widest part of the neck besides the HS is definitely under 3", probably under 2.5")

2- A 10° headstock angle works fine, there are both factories and custom builders using this angle. Using a 10° VS 13° headstock angle saves you over 0.3" of wood needed on the blank. As Mike showed, you can get a lot more mileage out of a block by tiling the laminates inside.

3- After the costs of shipping back and forth, along with the price of getting a pro to do it, you're looking at a pretty decent tool budget...if you plan on making another guitar, make sure to really consider the DIY route. An electric guitar requires many fewer tools than an acoustic, and I know for a fact that it can be done with a small number of tools at minimum cost.

I'm in the business of doing exactly what you're looking for (cutting musical instruments/parts), but I like to keep my karma up by giving advice against my best interests

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services