effluoDeus Posted November 4, 2004 Report Share Posted November 4, 2004 I am currently working on my first guitar and intend to build myself a neck as well. I am looking to build a 25' scale guitar. However, I haven't routed the neck pocket or set a position for the bridge so I am basically still very flexible in terms of options for making the neck. My questions are these(bear with me here, I have done some topic searches and read through the tutorials on the main page, but I haven't found what I was looking for): 1. I am curious about my options for the angle of the scarf joint. 2. Does a Laminate of Mahogony with a half inch of Walnut sandwiched inbetween and an all walnut headstock sound stable enough. 3. Has anyone ever used Walnut for a fretboard with any degree of success? As you may have figured out I have a bit of a love of Walnut. The reason behind this is that I have come into a good deal of walnut that is well over 100 years old and has been air drying in my grandfather's house. It is unbowed and sturdy. Thanks for your time. P.S. for those curious about this project, I am working on something very similiar to this Speedboat Girl. The body shape is different and Im going to use p-90's with some built in effects circuits. The body is walnut with a Chris-craft style top of mahogony with walnut pinstriping. It will be chambered to cut down on weight and the circuit for the effects and controls will be simplified as much as possible with push pull pots and switches to keep the crowding to a minimum on the face of the guitar(If you've ever seen the dash console of one of these boats you'll understand why simplicity is such a plus). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DannoG Posted November 5, 2004 Report Share Posted November 5, 2004 1.) An angle in the range of 12 -15 degrees is pretty standard. There have been 17-19 degree necks, but I believe those are not current. What you're trying to do is get a good downward break at the nut towards the tuners. Anything less than 10 degrees won't be getting you much break and anything over 15 means the nut itself needs lots of fall-away to lessen string contact. I do 13 degrees. 2.) Never tried that. Check to see whether mahagony and walnut have similar expansion characteristics. 3.) I have helped people make guitars using walnut for fretboards. It seemed to work fairly well. The drawback I saw was a tendency for the wood to have some compression to it when being fretted. If the frets were driven in too forcefully, the walnut deformed more easily than say maple. This could lead to real difficulty in fret leveling. And since I didn't see how the wood held up long-term (they were done about 2 years ago) I am not sold on it being as durable as rosewood or other standards. I think it would work, just don't want you to be stuck with replacing the FB in a few years. Let us know if you do use it. Maybe check the MIMF on the walnut FB issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
effluoDeus Posted November 5, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2004 Awsome, thanks for the info, thats pretty much what I was looking for. I did some more forum searches and I found a good thread on scarf-jointing. I'm not stuck with my wood choices mostly they were just aesthetic choices based on the look I wanted and I've only spent about 20 bucks so far for the Mahogany(which can be used for something else if it turns out inappropriate for this project). I'm glad I asked because you've certainly given me some things to consider and look into. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PerryL Posted November 5, 2004 Report Share Posted November 5, 2004 If you're set on the scarf joint and handy making jigs, this little gal will cut the scarf joint perfect. It's at Kathy Matsushita's website. She makes really nice acoustic guitars but the same tools can work both ways. Kathy Matsushita's Web Page Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
effluoDeus Posted November 5, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2004 I bookmarked it, that looks very handy, thank you. As an aside, I've been trying to do some research on wood expansion characteristics to see whether I can make a neck out of Mahogany and Walnut. I was curious if anyone could perhaps offer a link that would have some rough numbers on this. The Walnut as I said was cut well over a hundred years ago( it was pulled out of an old farmhouse by my Grandfather prior to it's demolition, it was used as molding on the second floor). However the Mahogany is much newer (it was quartersawn and air-dried for five years if the fellow at the lumber place is to be believed). Any advice or information on this topic would be much appreciated. Thanks Again P.S. What kind of guitar is that in your Avatar, Perry? I've been seeing that thing for months and I'll be damned if I can place it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PerryL Posted November 5, 2004 Report Share Posted November 5, 2004 An Epiphone Apollo, Part of slammer line Epiphone did and snuffed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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