Thin Neck + Headstock

[Roadhouse Blues]

Hello. I've just about finished the body of my guitar, and I just glued the headstock onto my neck. The joint is great, but I posted earlier about having glued a piece of wood on by accident. I went a little sanding-crazy, and I was wondering if my neck and headstock are too thin to use. The long neck stock is about 5/8" the whole way, and I will be using a hot rod, and then put a rosewood fingerboard ontop. The neck is mahogany. The headstock is 1/4" now after this crazy sanding, and it will have 1/8" of a veneer on it.

Do you think:

1. The string tension will be too much and break the headstock?

2. The neck is too thin to install the trussrod and carve into shape?

Thanks,

Matt

Edited April 18, 2006 by Roadhouse Blues

[Setch]

.25" is too thin for the headstock - approx .5" is the norm.

I'm also pretty sure that 5/8" is too think for the neck. I've cut necks from 3/4" stock, but anything thinner than that is unliekly to succeed.

[Hoser Rob]

That's a bit thin in the neck. The Hot Rod takes a 7/16" deep channel so you're going to have a rather thin piece of neck wood under the rod at the headstock. I'd suggest inlaying graphite bars into the neck such that they pass through to the headstock area. You could cut them at the headstock end the same angle as the scarf.

And about the 1/4" headstock ... you're going to have to put 2 layers of 1/8" headplates on there. Your tuning machines aren't going to fit otherwise. Use quartersawn material, ebony isn't unless it's macassar ebony or something similar. Something dark with a flamed maple veneer between would actually look pretty good.

The other question I'd have is ... I'd never be able to use a neck that thin. My hand would cramp up. What about you?

[thegarehanman]

That's a bit thin in the neck. The Hot Rod takes a 7/16" deep channel so you're going to have a rather thin piece of neck wood under the rod at the headstock. I'd suggest inlaying graphite bars into the neck such that they pass through to the headstock area. You could cut them at the headstock end the same angle as the scarf.

And about the 1/4" headstock ... you're going to have to put 2 layers of 1/8" headplates on there. Your tuning machines aren't going to fit otherwise. Use quartersawn material, ebony isn't unless it's macassar ebony or something similar. Something dark with a flamed maple veneer between would actually look pretty good.

The other question I'd have is ... I'd never be able to use a neck that thin. My hand would cramp up. What about you?

He'll have 3/16" behind the hot rod. That's plenty. The rule of thumb is 1/8". That's the thickness I've use behind a hot rod and an lmii rod and I've had no problems to speak of. The graphite or cf certainly couldn't hurt though.

As for the headstock, I would suggest, rather than adding two headplates, you do something strong and more traditional: put a 1/8" headplate on the headstock and backstrap the headstock with another 1/8" piece of material. Ebony would be an excellent choice for the headplate and backstrapping, whether it's quartersawn or not. That should leave you with a very durable, and classy looking headstock.

I like my necks around .75-.8. That doesn't seem all that thin to me, just right. Then again, some people would die without their baseball bat necks. Different strokes I suppose.

peace,

russ

[Setch]

A back strap 1/8th thick is a pretty tough job without a bending iron and a good deal of experience. I've done them with constructional veneer which is 1/16th thick, but I'd be pretty reluctant to try anything thicker without a lot of prior experimentation.

Whilst a 5/8ths thick blank could just barely yield a workable neck thickness, that's not considering the heel or headstock blend, where a little extra thickness is required.

By the time you've tinkered around with veneering the head, backstrapping, and all that stuff, you may as well have bought a new piece of mahogany and started over - the expense and time involved is far less than trying to fix what you've got now.

[Roadhouse Blues]

Thanks everyone for commenting. I think I agree with Setch. It's my first project, and I know a place that I can get quartersawn mahogany relatively cheaply around my area. I think that I may just start over. With a first project, I'd rather pay that little extra, take that little bit longer for perfection.

For the next time, tell me if this sounds good:

Plane the neckstock to 3/4", plane headstock to 1/2" with the 1/8" veneer on top (mahogany neck, rosewood f-board, rosewood veneer).

Thanks guys. Also, I think it'd be good to have the extra reject-neck in order to practice my shaping etc.

thanks,

Matt

[Mickguard]

I like my necks around .75-.8. That doesn't seem all that thin to me, just right. Then again, some people would die without their baseball bat necks. Different strokes I suppose.

Are those measurements with the fretboard or without?

Anyway, this question interests me too for my upcoming neck build...

My Fender MIM neck (one-piece maple w/skunk stripe) measures 20.5 mm at the nut (center of fretboard) --that works out to 0.8 inches.

I have another neck here (an old bolt-on mahogany neck with angled 3x3 headstock from a beater Japan-built guitar)--with the fretboard, it measures 20.5 mm. The fretboard is about 3 mm thick. So that puts the neck itself at just under 0.7 inches. This neck was on a guitar for close to 30 years before I took the guitar apart. It definitely has a rounder profile than the Fender neck.

My Melody Maker has strings on it, otherwise I'd try to measure it --not only is it even thinner than the Japan neck, but it's narrower -- 38 mm (vs 42 for the others). I have normal size hands, but I still prefer to play the Melody Maker's neck --it just fits me right. So I plan to go for a middle-ground with my neck, aim for 40 mm at the nut.

There's a tradeoff --I can't bring the Melody Maker to practice because it takes the neck is extremely sensitive to atmospheric changes --in others, it'll stay in tune for days if I keep it at home. But as soon as it leaves the house, it needs to be retuned every five minutes --by the time it has finally stabilized, we're done practicing!

And it seems to me that mahogany is more sensitive to this kind of thing than maple? Still, I'm hoping having carbon fiber rods in there will help with stability.