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In the course of fiddling about with my 2 most recent, I left the end of the fretboard unglued. It's a mortise and tenon bolt-on neck and the fretboard is nice and snug against the top. Is there a good reason to glue it down, or could I just leave it as is? There are no rattles, everything sounds good, so I'm wondering.

Thanks in advance

Steve

Gluing the fretboard down does more than just keep it from rattling. It also helps the neck resist the tension of being pulled toward the bridge by shear resistance. (shearing is when two pieces of wood are sliding past each other).

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Old growth, shmold growth!

I'd glue it down.Some say you're loosing tone by not having the neck vibrations
adding to the top. Just glue a small amount of the fb down on the top.No need to glue
up the whole extension . A repair man doing a neck reset in the future will thank you.

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

It would be interesting to see what would happen over the long haul if you just plain didn't. Currently I do double m&t and I've often been tempted to skip that step, but they've always been for someone else so I haven't dared.

Amen to that.

And/or, building on Dave's thought, glue a thin piece of paper betwixt the fb extension and the top. Makes a weak joint that breaks apart more easily when the need arises, yet is strong enough to help with Todd's fine point.

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

How about Taylor guitars neck joint, I saw this on Frank Fords site.

http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Luthier ... joint.html

I noticed an improvement with the tone on the upper frets after glueing the fretboard to the soundboard. Clinton

While some of the building principles can be applied to a hand built instrument, the precision isn't possible without computer controlled mills and laser cut shims. For example, I think a butt joint is probably better for all future builds for me, since it simplifies a lot of things, and an inletted area where the neck goes wouldn't hurt either (and it's not too hard to do with hand tools, careful carving would be required to ensure that the neck fits without any gap) to hide any gaps in the neck that may result from any work in the future.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

I've always considered it to be a part of the neck joint, so I always glue it down. IT would be interesting to know what happens if you don't.