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Neck-through Design - Do You Taper Through Body?


Cerb

In your neck-through builds, do you taper the neck all the way through the body or just to where it meets the body?  

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Tapered to the body is by far the easiest, but I agree with jnewman in that there are some designs that just look killer with it tapered all the way through. I saw a bass on the MIMF forum where the builder not only tapered through the body, but tapered the laminated in the neck as well.

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Tapered to the body is by far the easiest, but I agree with jnewman in that there are some designs that just look killer with it tapered all the way through. I saw a bass on the MIMF forum where the builder not only tapered through the body, but tapered the laminated in the neck as well.

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The ease will probably depend on what tools you have at your disposal, I would think. For someone like me, who could potentially order the wood already prepared, you're getting the wood in rectangular form. Gluing it up, it's still rectangular. Then you shape the neck the way you normally would with whatever tools you have, leaving the body still 'rectangular'.

Otherwise, you glue up and then taper the entire thing, which is fairly easy-sounding, but could prove tricky without the right equipment/jigs.

Tapering EVERY piece, as described above (including the middle laminate(s)) would be awesome-looking, I'd imagine.

Greg

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  • 2 weeks later...

the guitar i'm working on(which is posted as "neck thru semihollow" in the work in progress section) has a neck tapered all the way through. also, every single laminate in it is tapered. that's the only way i feel comfortable doing it. tapering each laminate give the laminates a more even look as the neck tapers towards the headstock. it's a piece of cake to do if you have a thickness planer. i just countersunk holes in each end of the laminate and screwed it to a (perfectly straight) pine 2x6 with a spacer at one end holding the laminate at an angle. a few passes through the planer and you've got a perfect triangle...or trapezoid, whatever.

Edited by thegarehanman
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the guitar i'm working on(which is posted as "neck thru semihollow" in the work in progress section) has a neck tapered all the way through. also, every single laminate in it is tapered. that's the only way i feel comfortable doing it. tapering each laminate give the laminates a more even look as the neck tapers towards the headstock. it's a piece of cake to do if you have a thickness planer. i just countersunk holes in each end of the laminate and screwed it to a (perfectly straight) pine 2x6 with a spacer at one end holding the laminate at an angle. a few passes through the planer and you've got a perfect triangle...or trapezoid, whatever.

very very interesting idea..

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all depends on how your doing the laminates. if you do it as thegarehanman says then that will look killer (also depending on what woods you choose) and 2ndly the shape of the body will change the appearance of the neck through.

So if you gave me a shape then i would have a more accurate decision but i prefer the look of it being taperd upto the body so ive gone with that.

T

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wes, if you want i would be willing to do a write up on that laminate tapering technique with pictures if you'd put it up on the main site. it'd have to wait a month or so though, this guitar i'm working on is top priority.

write it up and email it to brian...he is the one that does the main site,and he is always looking for new tutorials.

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