Laminating necks

[jay5]

I have decided that I want to try and aquire some wood to have a go at laminating up some neck blanks. How do you all do it? How many laminations are a good idea? What dimensions do you use? What do you all prefer? Thanks!

[MzI]

3 or 5 laminations work, make sure you have tons and tons and tons of clamps tho you dont want any gaps in the neck they could come back to haunt you, the one im workin on now is a 5 piece black walnut lam, gonna b heavy but o well the wood was free

MzI

[bassman]

In general I think it is more appealing to use an odd number of layers for a laminated neck, odd numbers just visually balance out better. You will notice than thin strips of wood will tend to bend naturally, glue the peices together so that they bends will be in contrast to each other, or will cancel each other out in effect. contrasting thin and thick laminates are the way to go. a thinner outside laminate that does not make the whole length of the neck looks cool (ie. it only shos on the wider part of then neck and then tapers off into nothing on the way towards the headstokc.

Peace and good luck

[westhemann]

like mz said...3 or 5 is great...there really isno limit though.

i like three 1/2 thick laminates with two 1/16" thick pieces in between...creates quite the classy effect

[jay5]

So what woods do you guys like to use in your laminations?

[westhemann]

So what woods do you guys like to use in your laminations?

anything really...ebony,bocote,mhogany,maple...take your pick of the stable hardwoods

[krazyderek]

purple heart and bubinga are the two i've used so far

[Slaughthammer]

what about laminating a 3-piece neck from two strips of bubinga and one strip of purpleheart? that should give a really strong neck.... but woult it sound good? i think you would have to use some very bassy wood for the body then, to get a decent tone.