Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by MichaelS Country Boy Guitars on June 16, 2010 at 11:19am

I prefer neck thru and use a thick piece of wood for the neck. The part that goes thru is just as strong as the neck outside the box on mine, and has lots of sustain. I was of the opinion that the thru neck would sound better than a neck on top of the box until I played around with a Dulcimer made with the neck on top and it sounded great, live and learn. I like the thru better looks wise also but I just may make one top mounted to see how it comes out. Also if its amped I don't think it makes much difference, the top mount may even be better for damping the extra sounds picked up by a piezo. Either way make what appeals to you and have fun.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Werner on June 16, 2010 at 12:42pm

All of my current builds have used yet another method, the bolt-on neck. This requires a bit of precision in manufacturing the neck, but it leaves the box much more like a real instrument, free to vibrate. It's also easy to set neck angle if desired.

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Fowle on June 16, 2010 at 7:04pm

With the neck-on-top cbg, if the bridge is sitting on a solid piece of timber (the neck), won't this render the instrument accoustically dead? I thought the bridge had to be touching the face of the instrument (soundboard) to transfer the vibration from the strings to something thin enough to act like a speaker cone. Then again what I thought doesn't hold much weight, as I've yet to even hear a neck-on-top cbg, let alone make one myself (or make anything for that matter lol).

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Permalink Reply by Boogie Man on June 16, 2010 at 8:54pm

Hi, Andrew! My guess would be -and this IS just a guess- that in the neck-on-top design, the vibrations travel from the strings to the bridge to the neck to the box, thus creating a "middle man" between the bridge and the sound board, but still allowing it the vibrations to reach the sound board, albeit in a more weakened state. This probably accounts for the decrease in volume?

Andrew Fowle said:

With the neck-on-top cbg, if the bridge is sitting on a solid piece of timber (the neck), won't this render the instrument accoustically dead? I thought the bridge had to be touching the face of the instrument (soundboard) to transfer the vibration from the strings to something thin enough to act like a speaker cone. Then again what I thought doesn't hold much weight, as I've yet to even hear a neck-on-top cbg, let alone make one myself (or make anything for that matter lol).

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Permalink Reply by Crow on June 17, 2010 at 1:36am

it IS true. there is a small amount of volume dampening that occurs with a neck-on-box build, when played acoustically.

however, it plays great and sounds good, because there are fewer fudge factors involved. and amped, it sounds great. it's just a stick with the bridge and nut, and with a nice hard stick for the neck you'll get LOTS of sustain.

if there's any doubts, one could check my videos, where i play acoustic at home and my performance videos where i plug in to the PA for sound.

if have built a neck-through and i hated it. i gave it away. it had a louder volume, but the tone and pitch strayed a little while ringing out, and it had a hard time staying in tune. i put lots of extra work in to an instrument that wasn't playable. for me, that equals a complete waste of time.

i could have built two or three "crow" standard stick-on-boxes in the amount of time it took me to build and attempt to iron out that neck-through.

i fully understand that everyone specializes in different build types, but i've worked very hard to arrive at a build method that meets all of my needs efficiently, and works the best for playing live.

as a builder and a performer,i've achieved my goals, and i'm sticking with "the crow" method.

one final note - for those of us who perform on a regular basis, a properly built neck-on-box build is VERY durable!!!! i've beaten the hell out of mine, and it keeps playing night after night!!

have fun guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Permalink Reply by Boogie Man on June 17, 2010 at 11:01am

You've sold me! I'm gonna try it! Thanks!

Crow said:

it IS true. there is a small amount of volume dampening that occurs with a neck-on-box build, when played acoustically.

however, it plays great and sounds good, because there are fewer fudge factors involved. and amped, it sounds great. it's just a stick with the bridge and nut, and with a nice hard stick for the neck you'll get LOTS of sustain.

if there's any doubts, one could check my videos, where i play acoustic at home and my performance videos where i plug in to the PA for sound.

if have built a neck-through and i hated it. i gave it away. it had a louder volume, but the tone and pitch strayed a little while ringing out, and it had a hard time staying in tune. i put lots of extra work in to an instrument that wasn't playable. for me, that equals a complete waste of time.

i could have built two or three "crow" standard stick-on-boxes in the amount of time it took me to build and attempt to iron out that neck-through.

i fully understand that everyone specializes in different build types, but i've worked very hard to arrive at a build method that meets all of my needs efficiently, and works the best for playing live.

as a builder and a performer,i've achieved my goals, and i'm sticking with "the crow" method.

one final note - for those of us who perform on a regular basis, a properly built neck-on-box build is VERY durable!!!! i've beaten the hell out of mine, and it keeps playing night after night!!

have fun guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Permalink Reply by Crow on June 17, 2010 at 1:32pm

@doughboy

they've been building instruments with full resonator faces for a long time.. called a banjo. LOL

my very first homemade instruments were all made from tins, with a neck-thru style build, with a bridge resting on teh top/back of the tin. the entire front surface was allowed to resonate and it sounded OKAY.... like a tin banjo...

but tin is very thin, and it caves under the presssure of the bridge , and the notes warble and go off while rining. the weakness of the face surface actually weakened the volume and tone too.

that's one of the earler parts of my journey that led me to the neck-on-front design to begin with, because the neck took all the strain of the strings, and the resonator just attatched to it and vibrated.

back to your idea doughboy, i'd like to see a rectangle body frame with like a diamond-steel plate face on the front... that would be great! or maybe just use diamond plate on the front of a cigar box for a resonator.... OOOOH. :D

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