Dovetailing?

[skibum5545]

In building a neck thru bass or guitar, could one dovetail the wings onto the neck-thru portion of the neck? I know dovetailing is traditionally done on 90 degree angles, but I don't know how a dovetail jig works so I don't know if this is possible. Anyway I was just wondering if such a thing could be done, because it would look really cool IMHO. Anyway, toodles!

PS if this belongs in the tools section, put it there. I wasn't sure which one it best belonged in, so I defaulted to here.

[Devon Headen]

It would be possible, but a really big pain in the neck. Unless you invest a lot in a nice jig for it. Probably still not worth the pain.

[Setch]

Do you mean with one long dovetail running the length of the guitar on each side, or lots perpendicular to the face of the guitar, so they look like a pair of zippers joining the wings on?

If you mean the second it will be pretty weak, since the grain will run parallel to the joint, leaving short grain at the base of every 'tooth' of the joint. I doubt you'd even get the joint to fit without breaking a bunch of the teeth off...

Overall, I see no advantages, and plenty of disadvantages.

[Devon Headen]

I never even thought about that way. I was just thinking about one long one, and I was kinda missing how that would look cool. If you're thinking about doing lots of them, I'm with Setch.

[skibum5545]

I was toying with the idea of it. You're right, it'd be pretty weak. I hadn't thought of that. Anyway, it wasn't a plan, just an idea, sort of a "clay pigeon" for the forum, if you will.

[VanKirk]

You never know. An idea of yours might just turn out to be widely used or lead to some other cool idea. Keep 'em coming!

[Southpa]

I thought about dovetailing my wings and neck plank but just too much precision required for the basic tools that I have. My last neckthru was a solid mahogany. I made two sets of mortise and tenon joints on either side (4" wide X 1/2" thick X 1-1/2" deep). The tenons were teak blocks with the grain running across the mahogany grain. You'll never see the wings fall off that guitar.

I'm currently working on a new neckthru design which will incorporate the bridge mounts into the same piece of wood as the nut. That is, most neckthrus are roughly 2" wide neck going into the body with the bridge straddling that piece. This one is 4" wide. Just an experiment to see how much sustain and tone is really inherent in one piece of wood. The design is hard to describe but the end result will be just one seam going down the middle of the back and one seam on the front. Everything else will be covered by a pickguard.

[Morben Guitars]

ahh, right up my alley...just comming off a weekend dovetailing drawers I can help you out with this.

First understand that a properly joined and glued joint is EXTREMELY strong. Since the wings of a body don't take much stress...you'll rarely see an issue here. Dovetailing would be primarly for cosmetic purposes.

I'd suggest using your tradional join/glue/clamp process for the main body, but to encorporate a Dovetailed cap on the guitar. (dovetail the bookmatch joint perhaps). That would be a great look with contrasting woods as well. But for the body, well the wood's just too thick for any jig I know of - and freehand dovetailing? Well, that's another bag of chips.

Either way, dovetail the wood blank BEFORE cutting the body shape.