Blocked-up Neck Construction for Headstock

[jrc127]

In Jonathan Kinkead's bood Build Your Own Acoustic Guitar, the author uses a technique called blocked-up neck construction where the headstock is cut from a lamination of a 5/8" block guled to the billet as opposed cutting an glue up of a scarf joint. Of course, the heel block is constructed from a layup of three-pieces glued to the billet. I don't recall seeing this method anywhere else. What do the experts here think of it?

[jread]

I've not seen that method for doing the headstock. I would assume you'd end up w/ a similar grain orientation as if you carved the head and shaft from a single piece of wood. I'm told that's less stable than a scarf joint, so I've always used scarf joints. That said, every Martin I've ever seen has the and heel, shaft, and neck carved out a single piece of wood. I don't know if they ever used stacked heels or scarf joints but my mine and the one's I've looked at in shops all have been carved from a single piece of wood. I've been to the Martin tour and they throw a big piece of wood in the CNC and it carves out a rough neck then it gets worked by hand to final shape. Those crafts-people are amazing.

Here's how I do mine really only because that's how I was taught not out of any real-world behavior of the finished necks. I used to laminate the shaft by cutting it the long way in three pieces and flipping the middle piece over, but I don't do that now. I haven't had any issues with my necks warping so just don't worry about it. I use 5/4 African mahogany from my local wood working shop and look for interesting figure and vertical grain lines.

IMG_7409.jpg

[jrc127]

On my two builds I purchased Martin style necks that were cut from a single block. I made a scarf jointed neck only once-for a ukelele. But I dropped it from the workbench and it broke right at the joint. Ouch. I have yet to finish that build. The Kincead version seems interesting.

[MaineGeezer]

Just out of curiosity, how do people do the overlap -- style "A" or "B" in the drawing?

built up necks.pdf

[jread]

Just out of curiosity, how do people do the overlap -- style "A" or "B" in the drawing?
built up necks.pdf

i've done "A" for all my builds. I am not sure at this point where I learned it. Could be one of the books I used to have but likely it was my hero Diane who taught me just about everything I know about this craft. Thanks Diane!

[Stray Feathers]

I agree with jread. But I wrestled with this a lot, trying to figure out if one way was better than the other. Then one day I found a reason in one of my ukuleles (AFTER I'd made the mistake . . .): If you use B, the scarf joint can show up partway down the neck. In the photo, you can see the scarf joints across the headstocks of the two Yellow Cedar necks. On the walnut neck on the right, the scarf joint appears as an arc a couple of inches below the volute. I think it makes a difference how thick the headstock is before you scarf it. And still, I scratch my head every time! Bruce W.