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Very, very nice! Well done.

Very nice! How about the sound?

And, I usually ask, what's next?

You can build anything or any combination. The only limit is your imagination.

Great looking rosewood and a very clean job. Can you compare the sound to anything?Ed

The Fender volute looks strange on a 3+3 headstock. The PRS Silver Sky (the John Mayer design) doesn't have this, apparently to give him more room in first position. If you use the volute for reference, I can see why you might want it, but it still looks odd. Of course, if anyone is looking at the back of your headstock while you play, you're doing something wrong.

I like the look of the volute, andyou did an excellent job shaping it. I have trouble getting the geometry correct.

The headstock on my first guitar is "wrong" too, but it's the way I wan it. Wby does Martin have final authority?

Just being an average ignoramus, what is a Fender volute?

Danl8 wrote:Just being an average ignoramus, what is a Fender volute?

The volute is the sculpted line where the end of the neck turns into the beginning of the headstock, as far as your fretting thumb can tell. A lot of people use it as a landmark for finding first position. The Fender part is just noting that they have a particular way of doing it that hasn't changed all that much in the last 65 or 70 years.

The reason it comes across odd here is not just that it's a 3+3 headstock, but that it's an angled headstock. It's tipped back compared to the neck, which is normal for practically all acoustic guitars and some electrics (Gibson for example). However, Fender notably does not use an angled headstock, they use one that is parallel to the plane of the fingerboard. This has a dramatic effect on their choice of volute, and it means that trying to replicate their choice with an angled headstock will look a bit odd as it does here. It also means they have to use tuning machines of differing length, and/or string trees, but that's not particularly relevant to how it feels in the hands.

Different types of headstock.

Am I missing something? The volute looks like the Martin pyramid, or ice cream cone. Martin has been using them since the 1800's. Here's a photo taken of an 1840 Martin. They continued to use the volute into the 20th century, and I believe they still use it on certain models today.

mike288 wrote:Hey Guys,

As much as I would like to take credit, that Volute came stock in my Martin kit. When I ordered my kit I talked to Gal personally, and I told her I wanted an OM-28 body with an HD-28 neck. She told me she was going to find me the best neck in the shop, and this is what sent me. The volute was already on and I liked the way looked so I left it on.

Like Diane, I wasn't sure what a Fender volute was. No confusion on what she shows in the pictures above. Martin necks come in many different shapes (their website shows the options) some without the volute, some with, mostly depending on the model in question, but as a maker you can fiddle with the dimensions. The Martin HD-28 has a low profile, 1 11/16" - 2 1/8" configuration. Very comfortable and playable.