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To Volute Or Not To Volute?


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Yep personal preference. But from a builders standpoint, and I'm not talking about the multi thousand custom jobs because at that point it is what the buyer wants. But more, when does it become wise to offer this as an option, lower end, mid price, a-la-cart? Or is there a real value for it at all?

Pros: adds stability ot the neck, adds sustain, looks nicer

Cons: gets in the way, adds to production cost.

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If volutes are getting in your way while you're playing, they've either been put in the wrong place or you'e not playing the guitar correctly. I just started using volutes, but I see no reason not to use them in the future. I think if you're building the neck by hand, the volute really doesn't add to the effort required to build the neck. However, if you're pounding out necks using a shaper to get the carve on the back, a volute might prove to be an issue.

peace,

russ

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I find a volute *easier* than a regular head transition. You don't have to flow the curve of the neck into the flat of the headstock, which I find a finicky job, and a PITA to get perfectly symetrical.

I'd much rather use a volute, and the only reason I don't always, is if my neck stock starts off a bit thin.

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How does the volute improve sustain? I'm not saying it doesn't, I just don't see how could it affect the sustain to a degree that you could notice it. I think people sometimes overanalyze stuff like this that make very little, if any, difference in practice at all. Like the other day when some guy was telling me that having no inlays "improves the tone". Perhaps it's just me that can't hear the difference when it comes to things like that.

Anyways, back to the topic. I've built two necks so far, one with and one without a volute and like Setch, I found it easier to built the one with a volute. From now on, every neck I build is going to have a volute. Not because it's easier to build but because of the stability and looks. If it gets in the way when playing, it has probably been put in the wrong place.

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Yep personal preference. But from a builders standpoint, and I'm not talking about the multi thousand custom jobs because at that point it is what the buyer wants. But more, when does it become wise to offer this as an option, lower end, mid price, a-la-cart? Or is there a real value for it at all?

Pros: adds stability ot the neck, adds sustain, looks nicer

Cons: gets in the way, adds to production cost.

I would add it as a standard feature. If for no other reason it adds strength to the weakest part of the neck. If that affords some insurance against failure it is worth while. It is not really a significant cost issue for custom models. It also says that even the base model custom is built to a certain standard of quality. Just my thoughts.

Peace,Rich

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When placed correclty, volutes make necks more comfortable, IMO. Gives me a sort of 'thumb stop' for certain bar chords, and, besides looking nice, they add significant stiffness to one of the most fragile areas on a headstock (doubly fragile if you're using a head-adjusting truss rod). Besides, voluted headstocks? Easier to apply rear headstock veneers to.

I've never built a non-volute angled head headstock, and I don't intend to start.

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It's just a personal preference, some like them, some don't. I've only built one guitar that had a volute, simply because I personally don't care for them much and no other reason. All the guitars I've built are for myself, so that makes a big difference, and if I was building for someone else and they wanted one, I'd do it in a heartbeat. If your doing custom guitars, you need to offer options like this for your clients. So really it just comes down to what you like and if your building for others, what they like. As far as making the guitar have more sustain, I'm not sure about that one, anyone have any scientific data to back that up? If so I'd love to see it. I do recommend you do a volute if your making the neck from one piece of wood though, beacause of grain runout, but if your scarf jointing the headstock, I really don't know how much a volute would add to the stability of the headstock area, if much at all.

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but if your scarf jointing the headstock, I really don't know how much a volute would add to the stability of the headstock area, if much at all.

WT???

A volute is nearly doubling the thickness of the neck at a point where:

  1. the neck is at its thinnest
  2. the neck is at its narrowest
  3. there is no fretboard to add strength
  4. the truss rod cavity is generally wider and often deeper than the rest of the neck
  5. right where the nut is, with a bunch of strings exerting more downward pressure than you probably have ever considered
  6. there may possibly even be binding, which is only a small amount, but still has zero load bearing ability
  7. there may possibly even be a recessed nut, making it even weaker
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Don't forget how much material is removed for a bolt on locking nut. On a side note, I have to disagree about the binding, especially when it comes to wooden binding, but I also think that even if binding does dissipate some of the load, it's negligible. Never the less, a volute is almost always a good idea. One more thing: I'd be willing to bet that you gain just as much strength from backstrapping a headstock with a reasonably thick piece of ebony or rosewood as you would putting a volute on, say, a mahogany neck.

peace,

russ

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but if your scarf jointing the headstock, I really don't know how much a volute would add to the stability of the headstock area, if much at all.

WT???

A volute is nearly doubling the thickness of the neck at a point where:

  1. the neck is at its thinnest
  2. the neck is at its narrowest
  3. there is no fretboard to add strength
  4. the truss rod cavity is generally wider and often deeper than the rest of the neck
  5. right where the nut is, with a bunch of strings exerting more downward pressure than you probably have ever considered
  6. there may possibly even be binding, which is only a small amount, but still has zero load bearing ability
  7. there may possibly even be a recessed nut, making it even weaker

I agree Perry, if you build the neck and don't design it correctly it will be structually weaker in that area. I wasn't trying to incenuate that a volute is a bad thing at all. All I was trying to say, but did a bad job of it, was that if your not going to use a volute at least use a scarf joint neck and not a one piece. I was talking about the headstock area, not the area you are talking about, when I was making that last statement. Your talking about joint area itself, which I total agree with you on. A volute should strenghten this region, but I still haven't seen any test done to actually prove this, but I have seen a demonstration between a one piece neck, verses scarf joint neck and it took quite a bit more force to break the scarf joint neck.

In my case, my necks all start contour sloping up comforatably just before the nut area, so there is more wood underneath this area. Look at a Fender guitar neck for example. I do agree about the truss cavity slot does weaken this area, and a volute would add strength to it. I also agree that from just my experience with Ibanez locking nut, since they made the neck even weaker by drilling two big holes for two screws to hold the metal nut in place, that this can make that area even weaker. I've fixed two guitars that had cracks in the neck that started from that very spot. I'm not arguing these points, because I feel the same way you do about it. Actually all I was trying to say was that if your not going to make a volute, at least scarf joint the neck.

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