Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ben on October 8, 2009 at 1:50pm

The type of wood that you use plays into it a lot. I'm a huge fan of gluing 1/4" piece of oak together to get the desired thickness. These are incredibly strong. Another option is to buy warped wood on purpose so it bends back to "straight." There's a bit more guesswork with that though. Another note on the gluing 1/4" pieces together: if you plan the lengths right you don't have to cut away for the headstock or under the box lid if you're building a through-neck.

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Permalink Reply by Andy Estabrooks on October 8, 2009 at 1:50pm

I had the same problem with my first build. I used 1x2 poplar on my three stringer. On my next build I went to oak 1x2, routed a slot and glued a band saw blade in the slot. I then laminated on a 1/4" fretboard. Might have been overkill, but with 4 strings the action has been great. Most builders laminate their necks their necks for strength. If I were to build a 6 string I would definitely reinforce the neck with alum. or steel.

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Permalink Reply by Diydc on October 8, 2009 at 2:21pm

Yes, you can use a hard wood like mahogony or oak thru the middle of the neck, set yourself a truss rod, which is really not so difficult to make, or as mentioned mount a bowed neck the opposite way round to counter the tension when stringed up. Not really that hard to do. Another possibility is to set your neck at a slight angle to the box to compensate for tension. Great when using a guitar neck from a broken guitar.

Just keep trying, I`m sure you will find a formular right for you.

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Permalink Reply by Tim on October 8, 2009 at 2:50pm

lighter strings might help the cause.

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Permalink Reply by Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates on October 8, 2009 at 3:59pm

I'm with all on the oak fingerboard/fretboard as well I have added a truss rod as DIYDC mentioned. Go to Lowes or HD and get a piece of 1/8"x1/2" iron bar stock and cut a 1/8"x9/6" channel perpendicular to the fingerboard. Lay the bar stock in the channel and voila! truss rod. Works great. No bow a all.

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Permalink Reply by Roger Martin on October 8, 2009 at 5:31pm

I use poplar but I too laminate 2 pieces to make 1 neck.
I glue them together side to side and then cut off the back of the log what I dont need. I costs a bit more that way but I havent had a problem with a neck yet.

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Permalink Reply by Outhouse Instruments on October 9, 2009 at 12:37am

My first was the same way.
Now I start with pre-made finished 2x2s from the Lowe's or HD.
I basically cut and shape the stick for the box , then shape it into a tapered rounded neck.
Yeah, lots of work, but they turn out really nice.
The first one I did this way was oak, the last poplar and it's a beaut! And the poplar is really nice to work with.

Matt

btw- the poplar piece is 2 laminated strips and the finished size (actual) is 1 1/2 x1 1/2.

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Permalink Reply by Wichita Sam on October 9, 2009 at 3:31am

Oak, Oak, Oak... plus seperate fretboard.... (BTW, with light strings (9s) I've not had problem with bowing even on poplar necks)

the best,

Sam

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Permalink Reply by Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates on October 9, 2009 at 6:04am

You know, I though this might be a good idea in two respects -- first, the joint would give extra rigidity and then since most poplar is not quater-sawn (rings perpendicular to the longest dimension on the end) this would in essence be the same.

So it works good? I suppose if you were handy enough, you could put two pieces together, saw them in half (perpendicular to the joint) and have two lengths of neck being one is really 1.5x.75. Two put together would be 1.5x1.5 and saw that in half... badda bing. You could even laminate a thin strip of (mahogany, bubinga, ... oak) to hide the joint.

Nice!

Roger Martin said:

I use poplar but I too laminate 2 pieces to make 1 neck.
I glue them together side to side and then cut off the back of the log what I dont need. I costs a bit more that way but I havent had a problem with a neck yet.

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Permalink Reply by Roger Martin on October 9, 2009 at 4:35pm

Wes,
If you look closely at some of my builds you can see what I'm talking about on how my necks are built. One reason I use this method is because I have to build anywhere from 2 to 8 3 string necks a week to keep up with demand in my area.
I try to build 4 to 10 1 stringers a week also.
One reason I like the laminating method is because I've never been a fan of the cut away the top part of the headstock way of doing it so the strings lay right going to the tuners.
I prefer a headstock thast kicked back at an angle to get that done..With the log method ( 2 pieces glued together)I can cut the headstock to any angle I want.

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Permalink Reply by Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates on October 10, 2009 at 5:22am

So like this one...

Past sell...

Yes, this is great. I do cutaway tops and sound recesses and this method might be very helpful for me. I can have that added reinforcement to the neck inside the box without adding on the extra reinforcement piece. Thanks. This solves multiple problems.

-Wes

Roger Martin said:

Wes,
If you look closely at some of my builds you can see what I'm talking about on how my necks are built. One reason I use this method is because I have to build anywhere from 2 to 8 3 string necks a week to keep up with demand in my area. I try to build 4 to 10 1 stringers a week also. One reason I like the laminating method is because I've never been a fan of the cut away the top part of the headstock way of doing it so the strings lay right going to the tuners.
I prefer a headstock thast kicked back at an angle to get that done..With the log method ( 2 pieces glued together)I can cut the headstock to any angle I want.

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