Official Luthiers Forum!

I use 5 piece necks, but have started using one piece necks as my
standard on all new orders... I voted 1 piece necks.

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

[QUOTE=John Mayes] I use 5 piece necks, but have started using one piece necks as my
standard on all new orders... I voted 1 piece necks.[/QUOTE]

John, why are you moving away from your 5 piece necks, or is that going to be an upgrade now?

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Scott Thompson
Port Townsend,WA

"In a perfect world we'd all sing in tune
But this is reality so give me some room"
-Billy Bragg

[QUOTE=Scott Thompson] [QUOTE=John Mayes] I use 5 piece necks, but
have started using one piece necks as my
standard on all new orders... I voted 1 piece necks.[/QUOTE]

John, why are you moving away from your 5 piece necks, or is that going
to be an upgrade now?[/QUOTE]

Yep it will be an upgrade. Plus some players do not like them. They are
heavier than a 1 piece neck, but on the flip side they are very stiff. Also
some like the modern look and some don't. It is slightly more of a fuss
with the 5 piece neck making sure the lam's are right on 90 degrees
perpendicular to the fingerboard surface, so it is slightly more work.

_________________
John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

My preferences:
1]Romanillos-style V-joint

2]Scarf

3]"One-piece", usually laminated.

I've also combined them, such as using a V-joint on a laminated neck. I have had one V-joint get dropped hard enough to break the hide glue line; there was no wood failure owing to the low shock resistance of the glue. It made for a pleasantly easy repair. I've never had a properly designed one fail in normal use: a couple of times i had problems using it on repairs when the stub on the neck was just too short. The Hauser/Martin style V would entail wood breakage, so what's the advantage for the extra work? And what's wrong with stacked heels?Alan Carruth38767.0139236111

Stacked heels and scarfed pegheads are great! Strong and they save wood. It's all about the customer's perception that it is a shortcut/less desirable way to make a neck. They get their cues from factory made guitars that just bandsaw necks out of hunks of mahogany.

I personally don't like the look of stacked heels, or scarfed headstocks.
But I love the look of the V-Joint neck. In fact I'm going to be building a
LaCote reproduction that has a v-joint neck so I'll be doing my first one
there!

_________________
John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

I always think that the old ways make a lot of sense if you remember that wood was expensive and labor was cheap. Martin started band sawing one-piece necks when they lost a lot of their skilled labor during WW I, and switched from cedro to the stronger mahogany. It wastes a lot of wood, and really can't be done quickly without a bandsaw, but that's what folks are used to seeing, now. Another example of how a mass-production method has displaced an earlier way of doing it that was arguably superior.