Through-neck Fingerboard Question

[joosh]

I'm working on some plans for a through-neck guitar but one place I am confused is how wide to make the neck/body core-whether I make it the width of the thickest part of the fingerboard, the width of the fingerboard where it meets the body, or what. I'm afraid that the neck will show near the top of the body as the fingerboard tapers. In Hiscock's book I can't find any mention. If anybody understands what I'm even talking about, could you please shed some light? Thanks

[redwhiteandthemaple]

There is no 'standard'. I'm guessing that's what you're looking for.

Such as.. Carvin neck-through is parallel, and the width is the same as the end of the fretboard.

Then, there are also other guitars that simply follow the the direction of the fingerboard and zooms out like a cone. Can't find any pic for now.

It really doesn't matter as long as the neck is between the 2 bodies and fit well. It's like asking how pink is too red??

-IR

[fryovanni]

If you plan to glue the fretboard to the neck blank before attaching wings make it at least as wide as the end of the fretboard. Some people like to capture the PU's and/or bridge in the neck blank. If that is your intent adjust width acordingly. There is no set rules as far as how wide it should be. As far as it looking odd with some of the wood below the taper showing. It wouldn't look odd to me and would be very discrete(just part of the neck-thru look).

Peace,Rich

[joosh]

Thanks for the quick responses. I was thinking about making that cone shape, but I've never seen that so I'm not sure how that would look. It just seems like on most pics I've seen you can see the neck/core go right up to the end of the fingerboard and then the wings are flush with the fingerboard taper even though it appears parallel. Maybe the distances are too little too really notice or matter either way, I'm just trying to make sure I don't end up with an 1/8" of wood poking out somewhere on my first guitar.

[mammoth guitars]

There is no 'standard'. I'm guessing that's what you're looking for.

Such as.. Carvin neck-through is parallel, and the width is the same as the end of the fretboard.

Then, there are also other guitars that simply follow the the direction of the fingerboard and zooms out like a cone. Can't find any pic for now.

It really doesn't matter as long as the neck is between the 2 bodies and fit well. It's like asking how pink is too red??

-IR

Actually the Carvin neck through neck NT6 continues to taper to the end of the wood. And you are right there is no specific method just whatever works best for you.

[Southpa]

I've done a couple neckthrus. One had the core width at the widest part of the fretboard (approx. 2 1/8"), so the TOM bridge I installed straddled the core. The other core was about 4" wide, encompassing the bridge. In THEORY there should be better string resonance if the nut and bridge are mounted to the same piece of wood rather than having a few glue joints separating these units. But honestly, I can't really tell the difference between the two guitars as far as string resonance goes, .

[joosh]

Yeah, I don't really have too much concern for the exact resonance cause I expect either width to be better resonance then a bolt on. The real question is just if I make the width match the widest fingerboard width will the few inches where the fingerboard tapers while overlapping the body look weird because the fingerboard is thinner than the core. But you guys are really nice and helpful. Thank you.