Official Luthiers Forum!

Anyone carving their SS necks asymetrically out there.
I find myself doing this as they seem to fall better into my hand, very slightly flatter on downside of neck, slightly more rounded on upper side as guitar is held (I am right handed).
They just seem more comfortable, and was curious if others do this.
Any comments of effects on long term stability, playability, ways round any issues (CF insets etc) welcome.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

BTW perhaps I should point out that my fretboards are made with an offset compound radius, slightly thicker treble side, thinner bass side (about 0.5 mm difference). I do this to try to keep the string height at the saddle more even, rather than having the more usual bass side higher and treble side lower.
Perhaps this will compensate for the neck profile asymmetry in terms of each side of the neck's comparative resistance to bending under string tension.
My necks are 5 piece laminate, mahogany/wenge/hard Maple/wenge/mahogany.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Hey I have something in common with Wayne Henderson! (maybe the only thing....)

All the electrics and basses I've built for myself have asymmetric neck contours - with traditional fretboards. Love the feel of it, especially when you're into the wheedly deedlys.

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The member formerly known as erikbojerik....

Al Carruth has mentioned carving in, sort of, an egg shape - thinner on the treble side, and fatter/rounder on the bass side.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

This is how all American made PRS necks are carved (both the acoustics and the electrics). I think they feel great, I'm a big fan of this type of carve.

Trev

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http://www.PeakeGuitars.com

Which way are PRS's "canted'?

Pat

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Any one with a picture of a cross section?

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http://shastaguitar.com/
http://www.kalimbakit.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/comfyfootgr ... ature=mhee
http://www.facebook.com/robert.renick.7

check out allan beardsell's guitars. he's been doing this for years.

http://www.beardsellguitars.com/glossary/glossary.html

I just finished re-finishing my Oakie's neck after re-shaping it to an asymmetrical shape -- it is SO much more comfortable this way!

What I found is that my D-shape neck was "hitting" the fleshy part of my palm at the base of the fingers when fretting... It felt like I was having to "Stretch" my fingers around because of this....

But.... The rounder D-shape feels pretty good up in the bottom of your hand by the thumb...

Why not try it out? 30 minutes of shaping with a spokeshave and sandpaper and it was done.... (And this is on an OAK neck! Mahogany would be done in 5-10 minutes.....)

Thanks

John

Gurians were made with necks that were not only asymmetrical but changed along their length to accommodate the change of hand position as the guitarist moved up the fingerboard. That started in the late '60s and continued up to the closing of his shop in '81.

Rick

Sorry no pics here, but imagine, or draw an egg shape, positioned vertically.
Draw a vertical line about 4/5 of the way across the eggshape from the left.
Piece to the left is roughly cross section.
)Reverse side where line is drawn for lefties)

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Sorry, should read "4/10ths of the way" not 4/5.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

PRS's are canted the way you guys have mentioned - fatter on the bass side.
Trev

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http://www.PeakeGuitars.com

Anyone using any of Tracy's (Luthier Supplier) templates for this? Any other sources for asymmetrical neck templates? I would like to try this but don't think I'm ready to just start carving on the neck without some sort of guide.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

My "Template" was just stringing it up and playing a couple chords -- there was a certain point that I could feel a difference in the neck... It seemed to "Fit" my hand better... That was where I stopped with the spoke shave and pulled out the sandpaper.

I would think that the hardest part is that people have so many different hand shapes and sizes....

Some folks have narrow hands and long, skinny fingers...
Other folks have giant "Gorilla" hands with wide, square palms and short stubby fingers.
Some people have small hands with thin fingers...

The same neck won't fit all of them right.

Thanks

John

I've thought about this before but got concerned about string tension and possible warpage. I guess it's been time tested though, good to know.

I've been doing the 'fatter on the bass side' carve since guitar #1, stole the idea from the SRV neck carve on the Warmoth website. Asymmetrical the other way (fatter on treble) probably works better for proper 'classical' technique, but I like fretting with my thumb, so fatter bass side is by far more comfortable. For 'classical' technique something like the Toone trapezoidal neck might work well. More importantly, make sure you round over the fingerboard edges so they're not squared off. A tiny change makes a huge difference in feel an playability.