Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi! A friend of mine, also luthier, asked me some issues about neck-thru construction. I surprised myself to be unable to answer him. So, here are some questions...

First of all, I have to tell you that the construction will probably be a 5 piece maple neck, with many laminates of bloodwood, padouk and purpleheart, and the body (well, the ''wings'') will be a combination of those three woods I just mentionned, with maple veneer between each color. So, it's gonna be a heavy build!

1- Do we usually put a tross-rod on a neck-thru? Or carbon fiber laminate, or nothing?
2- Do you give an angle to the neck, or leave it flat?
3- If you put an angle to the neck, how to proceed? Sanding down the neck? The fingerboard?

Thanks! ..and all other suggestions or cues will be appreciated!
Francis

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

I've never built a neck through, but just going on instinct here....
1- I don't see why neck through matters. The laminate in the neck may make it unnecessary as far as stiffness goes(debatable), but unless you're going to put a fixed amount of relief in the neck, you'll need some way to adjust it, no?
2- depends what type of bridge you use and how far the fingerboard is off of the body. Alternatively, you could recess the bridge, depending what type it was, until you got the action height you needed. Or a combination of that and a slight neck angle.
3-If you needed a neck angle I imagine you'd build it into the neck blank and/or body somehow, but I'd have to think real hard to figure out exactly what I'd do in that case. Since you're building it, you've free reign to do it as you like. My best advice would be to draw it all out. When you get to the side view and start seeing what the action's gonna be like, taking into account bridge height,fretboard height, and fret and nut height, then you can start looking at the neck angle you'll need(if any) and how to go about getting it.Off the top of my head, though, I'd probably make the portion of the neck blank that was joined to the body wings slightly thicker, and glue it to the body wings at the angle I'd need, then clean up the hangover on the top and back until it was level with the body again. Maybe.
If a customer asked me the same questions, I'd say "Well, I've never done a neck through before, but...", and then proceed to give him the same answers I just gave you. That's my best shot at it. Hope that helps.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

IMHO...

1. If it is a laminate neck, generally they are stiff enough not to require additional supports, CF, steel, etc...However, I would never build a guitar without a 2-way truss rod, simply because it helps clean up a lot of variables that would otherwise make setup a pain.

2. Neck angle - well that depends on a number of things, Just like Mike said. Bridge choice, playing style, etc... Many high end bass builders use no neck angle, and set the neck thru such that the FB is sitting on the surface of the body. I find this uncomfortable for active slap playing, so I set the bottom of my fretboards 0.1875 from the plan of the body. I use no angle unless the player requests it. In a neck-thru with an angle, I laminate the blank, set yo my geometry, and use a bandsaw to cut the neck angle into the blank. I then clean it up with a jointer, and do all processing from that point forward on that plane. But bottom line, geometry depends on hardware...

Not much help, I know, but juct have a plan when you go into it.

Stephen

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www.ziegenfussguitars.com