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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on July 30, 2013 at 7:08am

But you still have to scarf the rest of the neck to the bottom block, dontcha? Or am I missing something? You're not seriously gonna just glue blocks together to make yer neck...no time savings there.

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Permalink Reply by Old Fingers Green on July 30, 2013 at 7:22am

I've never done a scarf joint but it seems to be what a lot of people have trouble with, clamping angled blocks together and such. Anyone can clamp and glue two blocks together easy enough and then just cut out the profile.

I usually make my necks from a single piece so I'm used to cutting out the angled headstock but my supply of big chunks of hardwood has dried up so I'm having to start jointing necks. This just seems an easy way to make near enough the same joint

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on July 30, 2013 at 7:34am

So...you ARE going to glue a bunch of blocks together to make a neck...ultimately...;-)

But as far as the headstock joint goes, yes, you could glue a flat block to an angled cut on the neck like you show, then carve out everything that doesn't look like a scarf joint / headstock. It'll just take longer, is all. Or you can glue a flat piece to the back of your flat neck where the headstock goes, then shave away a flat, like a Fender headstock. An alternative to this, which I used to modify the headstock on my SwampWitch to get more string break angle at the nut, involved cutting the flat piece at the headstock, then gluing it on to the back of the now-thinner flat headstock, for the same effect. Best reason for a scarf is it involves only a single cut; the other way involves a minimum of two cuts, e.g., more work.

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Permalink Reply by The Phrygian Kid on July 30, 2013 at 7:59am

No, you couldn't.. Or at least it would be quite unwise. This is a very weak joint you have illustrated because you are gluing into the end grain. Atmospheric condits will almost certainly pop it open at some point. But if you turn that smaller block back off its end and glue, then bandsaw in a profile then it would in fact still be a scarf join and that's how a lot of guys do it cos it definitely is easier.

The reason for a scarf join is definitely not because it is only a single cut and therefore less work.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on July 30, 2013 at 8:23am

Operative word in my response was COULD; didn't anywhere say it would necessarily be WISE. No italics or bold, so easy to misinterpret tone of voice. Yes, if gluing to end grain, changes in temp and humidity can cause a scarf to go catastrophically bad. So you slap a fretboard across the joint to strengthen it, which is also something many builders do. Or you can laminate a neck and headstock... I've even seen and played some Indonesian finger jointed necks that I wouldn't give long odds on for durability.

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Permalink Reply by jawbone on July 30, 2013 at 8:08am

Something I'm going to try on the next one is.....
If you are starting with 3/4 or 1" wood, cut out the shape of your head, maybe just a little big, then figure out whatever angle you want and cut that off the top, take that angled piece and glue it on the bottom!!!
I did something similar but used another block, glued it on, then cut it down to the 5/8 parallel with the top. When I looked at what was left I realized it looked just like the piece I had left over from the top!!!

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Permalink Reply by The Phrygian Kid on July 30, 2013 at 8:18am

That's a scarf join. Only do the angle and gluing etc before you cut a shape not after, trust me on this. Cos u usually wanna glue 'wings' or 'ears' to cap and hide that join from the side, then make your design

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Permalink Reply by jawbone on July 30, 2013 at 11:06am

That's why I cut it "big".

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Permalink Reply by jawbone on July 30, 2013 at 11:33am

I'm not sure what the names of joints are (but I've been thrown out of some)

I'm not worried out the glue joint, there are plenty of others - I think this may be stronger than the scarf joint in that there is no break between the neck and the head. It is simply a "shim" to make the head parallel. Just move that top piece to the bottom. I used another block here, but next time....

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Permalink Reply by The Phrygian Kid on July 30, 2013 at 3:01pm

Yep nice one. Nothing wrong with that at all.
Thing about doing a scarf joined head (I do em all the time at the body end too for the same reasons) is it lets you make the big angles yet without using and wasting more wood. Only Gibson wants to chop down a whole tree for every neck, most every other guitar maker is quite sensible about this. So you can see that putting the 'ears' on to make the extra width for a stylin head enables you to start with a skinnier neck blank ie get more guitars from the plank.
Great stuff

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Permalink Reply by jawbone on July 30, 2013 at 4:31pm

I totally agree with you on wood usage, but every now and then I go wild!!!!
You see, I have 86 acres of trees and a 14" bandsaw so sometimes I just go nuts - just to show you how goofy I get - this particular build is from part of a turn of the century bank teller or post office that I was using for a shelf on the wall, just holding crap. A few days ago I looked at it and thought "Hey - CBG necks - Big ones!". These will keep me going until my wood has cured. I'm staggering things, end for end for better use and I heat the house and shop with wood - so it all gets used one way or the other.

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Permalink Reply by The Phrygian Kid on July 30, 2013 at 5:38pm

I've got a matching pair of Danish supermodel backpackers who oughta be in porn but I don't go around rubbing people's noses in it :p

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