Neck Through Shape

[ToneMonkey]

OK guys, I order some of the bits for my bro's Warlockesque Bass, but I've confused myself as I've never built a true neck through...

..... If you place the guitar on the table with the strings facing towards the ceiling and look straight down at the guitar, what shape is the neck. It's hard to explain in words and I haven't got a clue how to post a pic of it so bear with me on this one.

As the neck becomes thicker as it travels from the nut to the body, is this line carried on through the body so that the at the bridge end of the guitar the neck through is thicker than where it joined the guitar body? I don't think that it is judging by the pics of them that I have seen.

What I'm thinking is that when the neck joins the body, the outside edges of the neck become parallel with the centre line as it travels through the body. This makes sense to me. I think that this isn't quite perfect though as the fretboard extends into the body a little way and the laminates of the neckthrough will appear to be thinner (width ways - remember were looking straight down on it) than the fret board.

The other option is to follow the shape of the fret board until it's end and then bring the edges of the neck parallel with the centre line. But this would be far from preferential to joining on the wings of the body.

Please someone help as this is driving me crazy

Oh and on two completely different and irrelevant side notes:

1) If anyone in the UK has a quilted maple headstock veneer that I could buy I would be very greatful

2) Last night when I was trying to get to sleep, I designed a jig to make a snooker cue. I don't think that a quilted maple one (with a Drak or Myka style finish) will be stable enough, but hey I might give it a try anyway. Anyone got any information on cue construction? No, I didn't think so

Cheers guys

Kaj

EDIT: I forgot to mention perhaps the most important bit. I would like the neck though to run through the body at the same width as the fret board so it neatens up all the lines.

Edited January 26, 2005 by ToneMonkey

[Phil Mailloux]

I'm totally confused too with your question but since i've never done a neck-through i'll just shut up

2) I've seen plenty of quilted and flamed cues out there so I guess it should be stable enough.

[ToneMonkey]

2) I've seen plenty of quilted and flamed cues out there so I guess it should be stable enough.

←

That's made my day

[skibum5545]

Generally speaking, the neckthru part will taper during the "neck" part, just as any other neck wood, but when it reaches the body, the "thru" part becomes a standard width. I'm doing mine 3 inches wide, so I'm tapering in the neck part from 1 3/4 at the nut, and when it hits the body, the "thru" part widens to 3 inches, and the part of the fretboard that overhangs onto the body continues to taper like the neck, like so:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/skib...45/neckonly.bmp

Hope that helps.

[ToneMonkey]

Cheers skibum,

Yeah, I've seen that method before but I wanted the neck laminates to start at the corners of the fingerboard so that all the lines converge at the same point.

mmmmm, maybe I'll stick with the snooker cue

[skibum5545]

So, kinda like this:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/skib...5/neckonly2.jpg

?

The neckthru portion can be whatever width you want. All you have to do is figure out how wide your fretboard is at the end, and glue up your neckthru blank accordingly.

Edited January 26, 2005 by skibum5545

[ToneMonkey]

So, kinda like this:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/skib...5/neckonly2.jpg

?

The neckthru portion can be whatever width you want. All you have to do is figure out how wide your fretboard is at the end, and glue up your neckthru blank accordingly.

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You would think so, would you? I did.

Thats how I want it, but the problem is that the body and neck join before the end of the fretboard. It would be absolutely fine if the body, neck and fretboard all met at the same point, but since nothing is ever easy, they don't

To be honest, it will be much easier to do it your first way (which is how I'm probably going to do it).

I think I'll worry about this more when the woods all here and I can lay it all together and have a play. Got my mind on snooker cues at the minute

[CudBucket]

If you're talking about the width across the fretboard, yes. It's thinner at the nut and progressively gets wider towards the body. Some neck thru's continue this "wedge" shape through the body to the stap pin. Some don't. Some start with a uniformly shaped piece of wood, glue the wings on and the taper only the part that contains the fretboard.

Hope this answers your question.