Neck Through

[daveq]

I was wondering if it is common to use a fretboard overhang when building a neck-through with a maple (or other) top?

The idea being that you can hide the area where the top and the neck meet. I would think that it would be fairly easy to not use one and just mate the top cutout very well with the neck but it also seems a bit more safe to use an overhang.

Just curious if you guys normally do this or not.

Thanks,

Dave

[krazyderek]

i haven't actually done that.... but i seem to remember more then a couple pictures, of neck thru's with tops, and the top gets fitted to the guitar based around the "neck pocket" or cutout for the neck that's already in the top, THEN the shape is cut out... maybe you already know about this....

off hand i can't think of any with a overhand though... i mean the neck isn't coming off so why not just glue the whole thing down? unless you're trying to make a violin?

[daveq]

Thanks Derek.

I think we are on the same page with this but just to be sure - I'll try to explain it better-

When you build a neck through, you normally have a dip in the neck stock just after where the fretbaord ends and when using a maple top, the dip needs to go down enough to allow the top to come close to the bottom of the fretboard. When you look at it from above, there will be an area along the outline of the neck where it meets the maple top. Two areas along the sides and one along the side where the fretboard ends.

There's nothing you can do about the sides but for the area where the fretboard ends, you can. If you let the fretboard overhang by maybe an 1/8"?, you could slide the top under it and the line where the top meets the neck would not be visible.

That of course doesn't mean you can be sloppy but it seems like it would make sense to "play it safe" by removing one area that will be visible.

Maybe it's just not worth it? That's what I'm trying to find out - if many people do this or not when building a neck through with a top.

Thanks again Derek - let me know if we weren't talking about the same thing.

[daveq]

OK, now I think I have a better understanding of the issues.

If you were going to stain the top (which I am not), then you would have to do it before gluing the top on. Worse than that, it would be very difficult to clear coat the area under the fretboard so maybe it just can't be done?

[kings_x]

Here's how Westheman did it: