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I am about to make my first asymmetrical five string headless bass neck. It will also be made of bamboo / plyboo / bamglue.
I have made a few bamboo necks before, back when I used mostly power tools. I would route out a ledge, then use rasps to smooth everything (a lot of work).

Any advice on this ? I am guessing I will make a few templates (one for top near nut, middle, and bottom toward body) and eyeball it.
Thanks.

Well scrap wood is my friend. I figured if I just drew a line on the back of the neck, and didn't plane on the line, I just might end up with an asymmetrical neck. In this case, a progressive, asymmetrical neck. The 'hump' is on the bass side at the tuner end of the neck, and moves over to the treble side as it approaches the body. This makes sense considering how I play the bass. It wasn't so complicated, I just went at it with the plane. I also tried the draw knife, supposedly the best tool for this. But the plane was much better. The blade angle on the draw knife seems suspiciously steep for generous wood removal, maybe I got the wrong kind. So the experiment on the 2x4 was a success. Now I will try it on my precious bamboo. Note in the image, that in my test, I carved the neck profile opposite of what I wanted, I will triple check that before I start on the real one.

I shape all necks using the same process. Cut in landings at the 1st fret and the last fret you can towards the heel with a rasp and then shape the shaft to be true between those two profiles. The only trick with an asymmetrical profile is making sure the templates used for the landings are oriented the correct direction.

_________________
Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

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