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I am making a tenor uke with 17 inch scale, neck to body joint at 12th fret. If I use really good well seasoned old wood, can I safely get away with no reinforcement? I dont want to take a risk of warping. Ive got a couple of old pieces of mahogany very heavy and close grained from recycled furniture, probably at least 80 years old.

I put a 1/4" maple lamination in my tenor uke necks and I worry less.
Michael

I add a carbon fiber rod in my tenor necks. The laminated neck is a good idea too and can look pretty.
I have 5 or 6 uke plans around and none of them call for any reinforcement....I guess I'm just a nervous nellie

I have a 56 Martin Tenor with no reinforcement. Action is still good with no resets. It is a 12 fretter. With a 14, the carbon fiber sounds like a good idea that certainly shouldn't hurt.

Many thanks for the contributions

I wish and engineer on this forum would come in and do the math on this. My gut tells me on and instrument with a 16 inch scale compared to a full size guitar the ukulele neck would be about a 4x4 fence post but then I don't know how to do the structural math so have no real idea.

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Yvonne, this is just my personal feeling about your question. I honestly can't tell you whether you need reinforcement, and you don't state whether by "reinforcement" you mean laminations of harder woods, carbon fiber, or a combination. I am currently building a soprano uke. Obviously, a shorter scale than your uke. On my instrument, I won't add reinforcement. But I will try to orient the grain vertically through the neck (fingerboard to back) because I believe it tends to be a little stiffer that way. Many experienced luthiers have disagreed with this opinion in other discussions in the past. Nevertheless, I'll sleep a little better knowing I've done that. Well...all I can say is that my sleep is important to me, so that's the way I will do it. I think you can do it any way you wish, and you will be okay.

Patrick

I use both the inlay strip and carbon fibre . I have done just Carbon fibre , is it necess. maybe not . Do i feel better bout it .. yeah .

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It is a judjement call . I put one in on a vy soft sycamore neck, but not on a thicker koa neck. If your neck taper from nut to heel with a mahogany neck is 13-16mm . Don/t think you will need cf reinforcement, but if you did , it would not hurt either.