Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey gurus, I have a question about cumpiano's book. His guitar designed in this book uses opposing pins to mount the neck to it's block. My question is if get the neck aligned well and glue it then what is the purpose of these pins? Can I go without? I feel like they leave room for error when placing the pins.

With a plain rectangular mortise and tenon, I wouldn't rely on just glue. If you don't want to deal with pins/bolts, I'd dovetail it.

Have you seen Cumpiano's updated design using bolts instead of taper pins? This is what I'm planning to use on my first guitar: http://www.cumpiano.com/Home/Articles/Special%20interest/headblock.html.

Or lose the mortise and tenon entirely and go with a straight bolt-on. Mario Proulx convinced me to 'change my ways' on this.
So far, I've built guitars with :
Spanish heel (traditional)
Epoxy butt joint (David Russell Young)
Dovetail fitted with a bolt as well (Sergei deJonge)
Mortise and tenon and bolts
Spline (Hofner) and bolts
Straight bolt-on and butt joint
Indecisive? Or open-minded? You be the judge!!
Cheers
John

Thanks for advice unfortunately this is an after thought. I have the box together and the neck fit for angle. I may just use the tapered holes I created and run bolts through them instead. What do you think?

Robbie

Robbie-
I don't think that would be a very good idea. I'd switch to bolts running in the 'normal' direction and just ignore your pre-drilled 'sideways' holes.
This would be a good point to slow down and take a bit of a breather to get things figured out.

Exactly what stage are you at? Do you have the fingerboard glued to the neck yet?
A little jig for locating the holes (just a stick, really) can get things lined up easily. You can also 'get away with' having the holes in the neck block a bit oversized to let things line up properly.

Cheers
John

Well I am done with everything aside of fretting the neck. What kind of bolts do you guys use? Where can I get them? Is there tutorial on this style of bolting on the neck?

Cumpiano has revised his approach since the book. If you go to his website you should find details.
The pin approach made use of slightly misaligned holes to pull the neck in tight.

There are a number of bolt choices - most all of them are 1/4-20 thread.

http://www.leevalley.com/hardware/page.aspx?c=2&cat=3,43715&p=45375
Bolts and threaded inserts
Bolts and barrel-type inserts
Hanger bolts and nuts
Hanger bolts and cap-type nuts like in my pic above (You have to get the length right on, with those.)

For sources, it's a bit tough to recommend a place since you don't give your location (or name) in your 'Profile' info.
It really is 'nicer' to 'talk' with somebody if you know their name; maybe I'm too old-fashioned in this??

Your local hardware or HomeDepot type of place will have most of what you need, I think.

There are probably tutorials around if you search - here, at MIMF, etc.
One of Mario's pages has some details, though I think he's switched to hanger bolts these days.
http://www.proulxguitars.com/buildup/build9.htm
Kathy Matsushita also has some info- browse around her site- it's got a lot of good stuff:
http://home.comcast.net/~kathymatsushita/moreprojects/htmlpages/atc26.html


Cheers
John

The inserts with threads inside and out are available at BORG and most Ace Hardware's,
as are the large-head bolts. You need to match the bolt length with the thickness of
your neck block.

_________________
Gene

Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason- Mark Twain