Official Luthiers Forum!

I have wondered this for awhile and haven't ever really seen anything conclusive on the subject.

There are a few modern makers who are doing 13 fret slot heads, but I don't seem to recall seeing anything other than 12 fret slot heads from guitars of the first golden era or before.

Ive done some 14 fret slot heads.
My latest was that LS Koa OMFS I posted this week.
I think there out there. There just not common.

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

I bought a pile of Martin necks on ebay awhile ago. One is a 14-fret slot head for a dread. Never seen a Martin like that though.

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Lots of guitars have been made with slot heads with 13-14 fret at body joint.

I don't know why this is either. I think that 14 fret slot heads look "funny" but the convention was established long before I came around and no one has asked me what I think about the matter. So, I doubt that it's because of my sense of design. However, I'm willing to speculate as to why as long as you all realize that it's just speculation.

Suppose you wanted to make a guitar with as light a neck as possible. Aside from choosing a light wood you would make it shorter and 12 frets is about as short of a neck as you would want. Slot heads are lighter than solid heads so you would use a slot head as well. For a light neck you would want both 12 frets and a slot head.

Why not have slot heads for 14 fret guitars? Solid heads are easier to make and, I think, they are easier to restring and tune as well. If weight isn't your main concern, go with the easier solution.

Tradition.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

I suspect that the only reason that you don't see a lot of 14 fret slot heads is tradition. It seems like a silly reason, but I've found that tradition is a very powerful influence in the guitar world. Spend about a week lurking in the D28 Lounge of the UMGF to fully understand.

This comment isn't a put-down, its just how I've come to see it. If you are building guitars to sell, you can't stray too far from what people expect a guitar to be if you wish to sell them. There certainly are exceptions to this (Parker Guitars come to mind), but they seem to be fairly rare. Those of us that are hobbiests have a far greater latitude to play with designs, I think.

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Jim Howell
Charlotte, NC

Perhaps, but slot heads are usually thicker than solid heads so the difference can't be much.

As to why slot heads are more common on 12 fretters than 14 fretters I suppose Howard is right; tradition. Why I don't know, but the influence of classicals and the Martin line perhaps has something to do with it?

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Martin has just introduced the new Pat Donohue model. It's a 14 fret slothead. Very nice.

http://www.redshift.com/%7Egibson/Pat%20Donohue%20OM-30DB.pdf

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Jimmy Caldwell
http://www.caldwellguitars.com

Well, this is the second time today I said something without doing the actual math and I got burned both times. Arnt is right. I calculated the volume of a generic solid head that was 1/2" thick and compared it to a 3/4" thick head and subtracted the volume of the slots. I got almost the exact same volume for the slot head as the solid head so it wouldn't be any lighter. The weight of the two types of head would be about the same if you use 3 on a plate open back tuners. Individual sealed back tuners weigh more and most of the solid head guitars that I have played use these kinds of tuners. But that difference is not an inherent aspect of solid head guitars.

I suspect but can't say proof positive, that slot head drum and gear style tuners were the first reliable geared tuners mass produced. There for many guitar makers wanting to take advantage of the ease in precision tuning designed for slot head tuners. Later geared post tuners became available and the builders started taking advantage of the simpler and less labor intensive design of a post type peghead.

I am not saying post type peghead were not around earlier, as they certainly were. After all peg tuners were the original tuners in all sting instruments. Rather I am referring only to geared tuners driving both the advent and partial decline in the use of slot head in modern steel string guitars.

I'm sort of in JJ's camp as a 12-fret junkie. I honestly can't feel much physical difference in a 12-fret vs a 14-fret neck, but I can hear the difference in the more full upper bout body style and revised placement of the sound hole and bridge in the typical 12-fret body. I like the look of a slot head regardless of the number of frets at the body -- but that's just me.

I also have to admit as a player, I'm kind of a "three chords and a capo" kind of guy who seldom finds his way to the dusty end of the fret board anyways.

The information on relative weights is cool to know -- thanks Mike for doing that! I suspect that there is a lot of technical latitude in what makes a functional guitar and we can make what suits us (or the client, should we be selling).

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Jim Howell
Charlotte, NC

I own a Suzuki 12 string that was purchased in about 1980 or so that is a slot head with 14 frets clear. Cedar topped. I love that guitar...it is very easy to play and sounds good to my ear. I did have to glue the bridge back on once though.

Shane

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Canada

The guitar I'm holding in my avatar photo is a 14 fret. I agree with those who've said it's just a matter of tradition, and that it doesn't have any perceptible effect on neck weight or sound. I'm not one to feel limited by tradition (inspired by it, yes, but not restricted to it). I love the look of slot heads - well, not all of them, but the ones I like I really really like. Changing strings on them is admittedly not quite as easy as on solid heads, but it's still easy.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

i'm building a 14 fret slotted head at the minute, I'm trying to build everything I love about Martin guitars into one package... recipe for disaster if ever ther was one!

'Don't know what it is about a slotted, they just look great in my book.

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www.theguitarrepairworkshop.com

Yep, there definitely seems to be a lot of 13 and 14 fret slot heads being built these days. Santa Cruz had the first I had seen and many folks above are building 'em as well (love 'em!).

12 fret S.H.s surely were the tradition for guitars built in the late 19th and early 20th century. I guess I was wondering why when a lot of the early giants (Martin especially) began making 14 fret guitars they switched to a standard/solid peghead versus a 14 fret S.H. I guess like Mike said, from a production standpoint (in the daze pre-CNC) it was much easier to drill six tuners holes than to carve out two slots. Possibly also because the earlier high end Martins featured banjo-style planetary tuners.

I just figured I'd see if anyone out there had seen anything in writing from the 20s or 30s why no one built any 13 or 14 fret S.H.s. Maybe this would be a good thread for the UMGF?