Duff Beer Man Posted February 1, 2006 Report Share Posted February 1, 2006 When you guys are starting a project how thick is the board you use when you start. Im looking at some flamed maple on ebay and its 3/4 inch thick. Just wondering whats the thinest someone has used and had it turn out nice? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegarehanman Posted February 1, 2006 Report Share Posted February 1, 2006 (edited) 3/4" is fine if you scarf the headstock and use a fretboard(or a skunk stripe). I don't think you can get away with a fender style neck with a 3/4" board, although I've never had the urge to build a neck like that, so I can't speak from experience. I have one neck I made that's a hair thicker than .75" thick. Although, that neck has a normal single action truss rod made from a piece of metal rod, so it doesn't require as deep a route as a hot rod. Normally I aim for about .8, unless I want a baseball bat for whatever reason. Edited February 1, 2006 by thegarehanman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duff Beer Man Posted February 1, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2006 Yeah i use scarf joints, and i was thinking bout skunk striping it with some babinga, but havent made up my mind yet though. I use martin style truss rods, i have used hot rods but they require quite a deep channel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegarehanman Posted February 1, 2006 Report Share Posted February 1, 2006 Just figure out what all of your thicknesses will be(ie fretboard, neck wood, truss rod), and allow at least 1/8" behind the truss rod. Just have a thickness calipers handy while you're carving. The martin style rods are the halfround pieces of pipe with an internal rod, correct? How well do those work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duff Beer Man Posted February 1, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2006 Correct, i like mine, saves a couple of 1/16s of an inch with the shallower channel, so allows for super thin necks. Im very happy with mine so far. Where do u get yours from Lmii? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegarehanman Posted February 1, 2006 Report Share Posted February 1, 2006 I've used the hotrod before, but I like the fact that lmii's has a flat upper rod and that it's 1/16" thinner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted February 1, 2006 Report Share Posted February 1, 2006 3/4" stock (planed and flat) is even fine for a fender-style neck with a seperate fingerboard. Scarf optional. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikbojerik Posted February 1, 2006 Report Share Posted February 1, 2006 My guitar necks usually check in at 0.88 to 0.9 finished thickness (neck + fingerboard). Neck thickness is a very personal thing, so go find one you love, measure the thickness, and shoot for that. As long as your fretboard is thick enough, you can certainly use a 0.75" blank for the neck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southpa Posted February 1, 2006 Report Share Posted February 1, 2006 I made a tele neck out of 7/8" stock then add 1/4" fretboard AND installed a biflex Hotrod. Thats about the minimum thickness you can use if installing the Hotrod. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted February 1, 2006 Report Share Posted February 1, 2006 My latest pair (a strat and a tele neck..well, both the same, really) used HotRods and 3/4" thick stock. There's absolutely no room for error with stock that thin, and no extra wood to remove if it's not quite straight, but coupled with a 1/4" fingerboard, that worked out just fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duff Beer Man Posted February 1, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2006 what do u guys use for neck carves? Rasp? Routers? Spoke Shave? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegarehanman Posted February 1, 2006 Report Share Posted February 1, 2006 I taper the neck with a template and router, rough in the and fine tune the heel and headstock transitions with various half round rasps, then connect the two carves with a spokeshaved. Then I breifly go over the whole thing with 180 grit sandpaper by hand or an orbital sander to smooth it out and get everything even. I do any final fine tuning with various scrapers. You don't need all of these tools to make a neck though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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