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Bends and dips

im making a 3 string fretless CBG and I noticed in alot of pictures many people have carved/sanded bends or dips out of the heads...i wanted to know if its need or does it help out with sound or??...i plan on using a bolt for where the "nut" goes on a regular guitar, but do i need the bend/dip in the head to help make the strings tight n' snug?...........also for the second picture i circled the piece in red thats pushing the strings down tighter, i wanted to know if its just for show or does it also keep things tight an snug an its just an added item?

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Permalink Reply by Brendan deVallance on September 22, 2009 at 12:21am

Complete idiots require some kind of notarization, partial idiots abound unregulated, at least in my experience. But I seem to be in pretty good company. My first head stock had issues but luckily so did my neck length. I just cut the end off and started again.

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Permalink Reply by Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates on September 22, 2009 at 2:29am

Sure! Send the invite c/o:

Wes Yates
Morons-R-Us
1313 Meatballs Ln
Suite 0000.2
Clemson, SC 29601

[ No Clemson fans were harmed in this joke -- Tho that would be totally acceptable. ]

Diane said:

No, Brendan and I are the partial idiots, but we'd be pleased to add you to our club. Brendan, that okay with you?

Wes Yates said:
Hey, hey hey now... I resemble that remark ;-)

Seriously tho, nice to see how us folks solve these problems. Great working with you guys!

-Wes

Diane said:
Partial idiots, unite!

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Permalink Reply by Bart Wormington on September 24, 2009 at 4:14pm

Tuner end: The fellow who guided me in building my first CBD (physicist/curator at Bakken Museum, Minneapolis) had me mark precisely where the "nut" would be. To get a downhill run to the tuning machines we used a bandsaw to cut a 4-5" door-stop-like wedge off the fretboard-side (top), above the nut. Then we flipped it & glued it to the bottom, tightly clamped.

Years later, I started using the bandsaw to shape the top of the tuner end, finishing with a half-round medium then fine rasp and file. The students had all sorts of ideas after being challenged to come up with ideas for shapes with the excess wood at the tuner end: lightning bolt, initials, duck head, stars... fun stuff!

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Permalink Reply by Will Carter on September 24, 2009 at 10:19pm

If you ask Bairfoot Cajun about his build - you will see the plate circled is for string retention and improves the transfer of vibrations from the bridge area to the body (converted into volume). Look at builds that have floating bridges ( a lot) and the strings are never more than a couple of inches from the end of the guitar, which is as Diane said for the right grab. Some of the guitars have the strings mounted from the bridge itself which is a cool way of doing it (bearing in mind the stress the tension of the strings will exert on the bridge will have to be compensated for somehow with reinforcing.