Official Luthiers Forum!

Whats the minimum depth that one should keep on the heel to ensure structural stability? 1", 3/4"?

-j.

_________________
“If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting”
-jack handy

Maybe thickness is a better way to word it?

_________________
“If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting”
-jack handy

This is the measurement parallel to the fingerboard?
Are you including the tenon/dovetail depth or is this a flush no-mortise neck?
Lots of jazz-type guitars have wider and 'thinner' heel profiles at the bottom.
I don't think it's too critical, but I wouldn't make the transition from the straight neck section to the heel curve too sudden.
For me, it's one of those 'If it looks right, it is right' sort of decisions. That said, people seem to manage to crack stacked heels fairly often. However, building guitars strong enough to be used for fighting is a losing proposition, IMO.
Cheers
John

[QUOTE=JohnAbercrombie] However, building guitars strong enough to be used for fighting is a losing proposition, IMO.

[/QUOTE]

I should have specified acoustic guitars!
Solidbodies (esp Fender style-Gibsons have that pesky weak area at the headstock join) are excellent as clubs if you get in a tight spot!

Sorry for the detour!Back to the original thread!
About that heel 'thickness'....

you need to be even more specific...I build acoustic but they are all classical with a spanish heel so my neck heel depth would be different.

When I am begged into building a steel string, I use a bolt on neck with a tenon (ala Cumpiano) so the neck block needs to be big enough for the tenon (I use barrel bolts) and enough wood so the barrel bolt doesnt split out so my neck heel block is 1 1/8 inches w. the tenon extending into the body by 5/8 with ~1/2 of wood between the end of tenon and the outside edge of the block.

I build so few steel strings that I dont have any better information as it all seems foreign to me as everything is so much bigger than I am used to with classicals.

Yep, I was talking parallell with the neck from the body back toward the headstock.
Mortise and tenon with all of the hardware being in the tenon, so nothing to worry about going too shallow and hitting steel or something.
-j.

_________________
“If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting”
-jack handy