Depth of the tailblock

[JJDonohue]

JJ
Reverse rounded kerfing --- rounded edge inboard top and back -- Not sure what you are asking??

Yeas...I see it now...the pic was unclear to me at first.

[tippie53]

reverse the tail block so the plywood is against the sides , This will add a considerable anti split if you drop the guitar on the endpin

[Darryl Young]

Several builders I know bevel the top of their blocks as has been suggested. To my knowledge, it hasn't created any problems. I'm conservative about these things and doubt that the 3" by 1/4" or so relief would really matter one way or the other to tone/volume, or to durability for that matter. It's probably just an individual style -- I'd rather save mass and increase flexibility where I know it helps and not where it might compromise durability.

Interesting Rick. Ironically, my thought for trying this was thinking the lower bout was the most critical area for sound so it seems freeing up any portion of the lower bout would be a good thing. Is there another part of the guitar that can add more to the sound/tone than the lower bout? Seems the length of the body has something to do with bass response so I guessed freeing up the 1/4"-3/8" of the length of the lower bout would be somewhat like lengthening the body by almost 3/8". It also seemed that glueing the entire width of the tail block would create an anomoly in the monopole node line which might affect tone. Of course this was all in my mind......so interesting to read from someone with considerable experience that it seems to not matter (or matters little).

I'm thinking out load but the only reason I can think of that more glueing surface might be needed above the tail block is it's directly inline with the pull of the strings. Is there another reason this area needs more glueing surface than the rest of the perimeter? For the record, I glued the entire width of the neck block hoping it would help resist neck block rotation. In that sense, a deeper neck block might be better.

[Darryl Young]

JJ flip the ply so it is against the sides . The wedge in a strap pin can still pop that tail block. I played with that and you can acutally drive the pin into the plywood to the point is smashes , it never popped the tail block . when I tried it that way I did split the block but not as bad.

Very interesting John. Thanks for sharing that.