Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi,

I'm wondering about pros and cons regarding an archtop neck made of just one piece of maple (plus fingerboard) vs two ore more pieces.

Soundwise, as i was told, the extreme stability due to the lack of glue joints provides enhanced sustain.

But what about other issues such as tha danger of gettng warped?

Best Regards,
JN

1) There is no evidence of which I am aware that laminated necks provide any difference in sustain.

2) Traditional archtops don't have much sustain. That is by design.

3) Laminated necks are considered to be more resistant to warping.

4) My 50 year old archtop has a one piece neck that has not warped.

5) Therefore, do what pleases you, because its all good.

6) Welcome to the OLF!

_________________
"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

I laminate some of my necks. To test them I throw them to see if they will hold up. Same with the one piece necks . I do stack the neck heel and always use a scarf jointed neck , as IMHO it makes for a much stronger headstock than a 1 piece with short grain

Take anything a luthier tells you about 'sound wise' with a grain of salt

Availability of timbers, aesthetics. As been mentioned laminating 2 pieces coming from the same board and reversing grain direction enhances chances of stability.
Sustain can be enhanced by having more mass in the neck (as in denser timbers), but the opposite is true in terms of stability: a well laminated neck is theoretically more stable than a one-piece neck. In practice, if your wood is well seasoned, both are fine.
See above. It depends on too many factors: type of wood used, quality of the cut and seasoning. To diminish possible issues, as a rule of thumb for any wood, your neck stock should be straight grain, no runout, well seasoned and acclimated to your shop. I use one-piece necks all the time and have yet to have a problem. I keep the raw material for a while before cutting it in neck blanks, keep them for a while in that form to monitor an possible warp, and when all is well I use them.

_________________
Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

Seems easier for me to find local wood stock that's 1 1/2" thick flat sawn then 3" quarter sawn. Cut an 2 X 8 flat sawn in half and book match it up and you have a quartered neck blank. I personally like the looks of laminated necks in most cases.

I agree that it's mostly personal preference. If you use a template to lay out and rough cut your laminations, you can often get everything you need from a less expensive thinner board, and without as much waste. And if I have diagonally-grained stock, I can orient the grain so that it's equally slanted in opposing directions on each side. This is probably just a "peace of mind" thing with me and little more.
One last point: Doing it this way will tend to give you the same visual appearance on both sides of the neck. I can't believe there's any tonal difference--regardless of whether it's an archtop, flat top, classical,
etc.

It's pretty hard if not impossible to find any 12/4 walnut, mahogany, or cherry in Tampa. Tuff enough to find 8/4.