Need some help.
I am making a through neck four string. Am using Poplar with a glued up one quarter Oak spline running the length. Dimension of finished neck will be one and five eighths by just less than three quarters with added one quarter Rosewood fret board making finisher neck one and five eights by just under one inch. Going for standard U profile. Thought this would work. Turns out too flexible, at least without the fret board glued up. I am wondering if I hold the Poplar/Oak fairly well shaped neck at a backward bend then glue the fret board if I can hope to come out with a straight neck when strung. I know I will have to guess at probable tension stress pulling the neck and thinking of only a couple of degrees bend. Anyone tried this? Am concerned about glue creep over time too. Right now neck is dead flat. Made end mill using router. Thanks. I was amazed at response to last post. A lot of experience in this crowd.
G
Replies
It'll be fine once you glue on the fretboard.
Poplar is good wood for necks, easy to work and light weight. I have an 87 year old Stella that has a poplar neck with no truss rod with steel strings and it's not bent.
Don't put a back bend in the neck before glue up. You do not want it to be dead level when strung. There should be a slight relief.
Glue creep shouldn't be an issue either if you are using a good glue.
Thanks for comments. I`m overthinking again. I`ll just glue fretboard straight, string light and see what happens. What glue would be suggested. Don`t really want to thrash with Hide glue and pot. Using Titebond two for everything. Search finds someone always hates something. Tried Tbond three and don`t like clean up. Have Old Brown not tried and have not found Fish.
I use 11's on my personal builds and 10's on commercial builds, haven't had any problem with neck bending on poplar necks.
The only time I use hide glue is on restorations. I use either Titebond II or Elmer's MAX for my wood working, whichever is on sale when I run low.
I don't plan on taking anything I've glued apart. If it is a piece that needs to be removable it gets screwed on.
Your neck should be rigid enough when glued up.If you want to go the belt and braces route add a piece of steel flat bar on edge epoxied into the neck like this 6 string.Never done it on a 3 or 4 string though