Official Luthiers Forum!

Not to use plywood for neck blocks??????? I use it for the tail block...works great , won't split???? I see some builders laminate pieces of hardwood ...just wondering ....

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MK5acoustics.com

Martin has been using it for some time.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

plywood has dampening/vibration absorbing properties....i wouldn't want it anywhere near an acoustic instrument, even an area such as a neck block. laminated hardwood, or even laminated softwood, would be far superior to plywood....a large percentage of plywood composition is adhesive, and the rest, about the crappiest wood there is

Plywood has weak and strong layers, and glue voids, unless you find extremely high quality plywood.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

I think the plywood that Martin uses is high quality. Not your Daddys or Grandaddys ply by any means.
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

I have no experience with using plywood in guitars but with 20 years of furniture building experience in can say the difference between high quality (and expensive) Baltic birch ply and standard birch ply, for example, would be to draw comparison between Canadian and American hockey players. . Ever notice that great jigs are often built out of Baltic ply over solid wood for stability? Tone conduction, however, is a different matter I presume.

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Doug

Don't let fear or common sense stop you from trying to build something

You need old growth plywood.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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"After forty-nine years of violin building, I have decided that the search for a varnish is similar to the fox hunt. The fun is in the hunt."
Jack Batts Maker and Repairer of Fine Violins

I've been using it for end blocks on my last three, and something happened with the third that got me worried.

The end of the lining that was close the the block had a small piece that cracked while routing the binding channel. While trying to remove it with my pellet knife (actually just push it so it would break and fall inside the box), the knife accidentaly found it's way between the back and the end block, and unglued a portion of the top from the end block. I was quite surprised the glue joint was not better than this. I gently slipped that knife again and the entire glue joint failed! No heat, and almost no pressure.

So I'm currently runing some tests (Titebond with baltic birch playwood). So far, plywood glue joint seem to be considerably weaker than solid wood glue joint. I'm pretty sure it's because of the end grain portion of the glue joint (not surprisingly). I'm trying to repeat to process to see if my results are consistent.

All this to say, with the amount of pressure the strings put on the neck block/top glue joint, I'd be afraid plywood would creep far more easily, thus pushing the entire neck forward.

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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)

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Don't forget quarter sawn, no runout.

Pat

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