P90 Posted February 27, 2007 Report Share Posted February 27, 2007 A loooooong time ago when I made my first neck, I made the headstock just a straight continuation of the neck wood. There was no "scoop" like Fender headstocks to lower the tuners for a better angle. The fretboard provided a little height, and I just used a home-made string retainer bar just past the nut to increase the string angle. After that neck, I did the Gibson-style downward angle thing on subsequent necks. After this past week of looking at the Zachary guitar threads, I'm kinda warming to that look of an "unscooped" straight headstock... not neccesarily the "samurai" shape from the front, but how it looks from a side angle. And string retainers/trees make for a decent angle. So would a Floyd Rose nut. Does anyone else make their headstock this way? Any opinions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted February 27, 2007 Report Share Posted February 27, 2007 My chief complaint is aesthetic, although I'm not a big fan of string trees either (extra friction, and if it's low friction, unnecessary, cluttered hardware on the headstock). As long as the holes in the tuning machines are a little below the level of the frets, it should work OK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WezV Posted February 27, 2007 Report Share Posted February 27, 2007 I try and avoid string trees altogether, horrible little things that they are. I mostly do angled headstocks now. It might be worth looking at tuners with staggered heights to help get that extra angle needed at the nut. In fact tuner choice is very important here, some are taller than others - get as short as you can find and wind the strings low. Generally i dont like the idea because either way you look at it, it leads to a compromise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickguard Posted February 27, 2007 Report Share Posted February 27, 2007 I like the look a lot, think there's a real coolness factor, and I do think the Zachary headstock is very cool (there are other luthiers who make ultra slim headstocks too). It's the narrowness of the headstock that makes it work --I'm not so sure how a standard shape would look. Big problem with that headstock is I don't see how you can hang it, and I always hang my guitars. The flipped tuner thing doesn't bother me all that much, but you'd think that after all this time he'd be able to find a set that will work with the design--he claims to have designed a lot of his other parts, why not the tuners? Every headstock presents its share of compromises, advantages and disadvantages, and I'm not personally against anyone of them (except for scarf-jointed necks, they just look cheap to me). For the neck I've been working on I chose the Fender style, partly because that's a bit easier for me. There's definitely a 'scoopless' headstock in my future, if I can come up with the right shape for it. I'm not bothered by string trees --I use Graphtech's on my guitars (in fact, I tend to use their nuts and saddles too). My strat --which uses two string trees, string saver and the stock nut--- NEVER goes out of tune. And I mean after an entire night in a bar, and still, a week and a half later, I haven't needed to tune it up. (Or course, the bridge is blocked) I like the look of string trees too. I don't like the retainer bar--reminds me too much of my very first cheapo Japanese guitar...ouch! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WezV Posted February 27, 2007 Report Share Posted February 27, 2007 Every headstock presents its share of compromises, advantages and disadvantages, and I'm not personally against anyone of them (except for scarf-jointed necks, they just look cheap to me). For the neck I've been working on I chose the Fender style, partly because that's a bit easier for me. I like scarf joints, they allowed me to get this neck as an offcut from a bass neck blank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnewman Posted February 27, 2007 Report Share Posted February 27, 2007 The main thing I would say in favor of scarf joints is that they're stronger than a tilt-back carved out of a single piece of wood. If you have more than just the smallest bit of grain runout (which carved out tilt-backs do), then your wood strength drops dramatically. The first guitar I built had a straight headstock with no scoop, just the fretboard height above the headstock. That part of it worked fine, although the guitar does have other problems (mainly relating to fret dress). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickguard Posted February 27, 2007 Report Share Posted February 27, 2007 I like scarf joints, they allowed me to get this neck as an offcut from a bass neck blank Ah, well, that's a different animal altogether! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted February 27, 2007 Report Share Posted February 27, 2007 Crazy talk, Mickguard! Scarf joints look sweet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fryovanni Posted February 27, 2007 Report Share Posted February 27, 2007 A loooooong time ago when I made my first neck, I made the headstock just a straight continuation of the neck wood. There was no "scoop" like Fender headstocks to lower the tuners for a better angle. The fretboard provided a little height, and I just used a home-made string retainer bar just past the nut to increase the string angle. After that neck, I did the Gibson-style downward angle thing on subsequent necks. After this past week of looking at the Zachary guitar threads, I'm kinda warming to that look of an "unscooped" straight headstock... not neccesarily the "samurai" shape from the front, but how it looks from a side angle. And string retainers/trees make for a decent angle. So would a Floyd Rose nut. Does anyone else make their headstock this way? Any opinions? You mentioned you changed to angled headstock after your first. What was the motivation to change? Since you have build both styles which do you prefer(in terms of finished product)? That would seem to be the key to your design choice. Not so much what anyone else does. Both can certainly be done efficiently(in terms of wood usage), both will structurally work, an angled headstock requires a little more work, but is not a big deal. Choose the method that you believe works best based on your observation. Peace,Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P90 Posted February 28, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2007 Every headstock presents its share of compromises, advantages and disadvantages, and I'm not personally against anyone of them (except for scarf-jointed necks, they just look cheap to me). For the neck I've been working on I chose the Fender style, partly because that's a bit easier for me. Yea... I like the straight Fender style because of simplicity... and aesthetics. I think what I might do is sorta in between... most scoops go about 1/4" down (not counting the fretboard). Since I like a 5/8" thick neck (not counting fretboard) and 1/2" is the typical headstock thickness... maybe what I'll do is just a very minor 1/8" scoop (again, not counting the fretboard). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.