Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello,

I want to do a scarf joint on a concert uke neck but the piece of maple is flat sawn. Will this be strong enough? I usually do my necks with close to quarter spanish cedar so i'm a little hesitant. Plus I'm quite the novice so I just thought I'd run it by you guys first.

By the way, any idea how you pronounce "padauk"?

Thanks for any advice,
Charles

For a uke probably so but see what others think as well

The scarf joint will be plenty strong enough. Have you considered ripping it and gluing it to make a 1/4 sawn board.
Padauk is pronounced padook.

I think it's pronounced PadOOK.

Every fender neck is made from flat sawn maple. So this will work fine for a uke.

It's more stability that quartersawn gives you...

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

All scarf joints are endgrain to side grain.
So a flat sawn head will still be glued to a side grain neck.
Is this clear for you ?
I'm terrible with words .

Mc

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Mike Collins

I know a guy who's a conceptor for a huge guitar company that you probably know, but i'll forget to tell both names..anyway. Companies who are using maple on flatsawn for electric necks are ONLY, and ONLY this from a $$$$$ perspective. It waaaay cheaper to cut wood on flatsawn, and cause maple is strong enough for a neck, on flat sawn, they use it. But the better way to build neck (said by his mouth..) is on quarter sawn. It won't be less or more strong, but wayyy wayy more stable. And that's the point. A more stable neck won't move, won't contract/discontract, etc etc. If you have a quartersawn neck, you'll see that you won't adjust the tross rod as many often as on a flatsawn one...

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

p.s. Welcome to the group, Charles!

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu