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I was taught to taper the neck blank along its length after gluing the headstock. The guy who taught me builds guitars with a slightly unusual design - the fretboard isn't glued to the top of the guitar, it rests on an extension of the neck that extends past the heel with the soundboard being notched around it (see pic).


Dry Fit by Blind Robert, on Flickr

I'm trying to build this guitar with a more common design, soundboard covering the whole box and fretboard extending over the soundboard. My question is: does one still need to taper the neck blank or was that move necessitated by my teacher's unique neck/body relationship?

I don't find any mention of tapering the neck in the Cumpiano book.

Thanks in advance.

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Registered Architect (Texas, New York)
LEED AP

Tapering the top surface of the neck after gluing the headstock serves a purpose. It effectively pushes the Nut position back whilst maintaining the transition area (Head to neck shaft) at the back of the Neck. It's easier to hide the glue line.
If you ever see a glue line that cuts through the tuner slots or just below them (rear of the head) you know that the upper surface of the Neck wasn't tapered. It's a common beginners mistake and it looks unsightly.

That's interesting and I'm having a little trouble wrapping my head around it because I was taught to taper the neck blank by about 1/8" over its entire length resulting in 5/8" thickness at the nut and 3/4" at the heel end.

If I recall correctly, the neck blanks we worked with in class started out at 3/4" thick, so there was almost nothing to remove at the nut end. (The blank I'm working with now is 7/8" thick, so the thinning will push the nut back, as you described.)

So another question: is the 1/8" taper over the length applicable for all scale lengths as well as 12 or 14 fret to body designs or is there some way to derive/address the appropriate taper for a given scale length and frets-to-body choice?

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Registered Architect (Texas, New York)
LEED AP

Perhaps that is Neck geometry (Neck angle). In which case he would either be tapering the actual fretboard or he had a way of introducing the Neck angle by tapering the Neck. There are a few ways to obtain the all important neck angle but it's crucial that you get this particular step right. . . . or he could be tapering the Neck so that it fixes the actual thickness - Classical Necks (and probably Steel strings?) tend to be thinner at the Nut end, thicker at the Heel end. If that's the case then the tapering isn't crucial. You can just remove material off the back of the Neck (when carving it) until it reaches the desired thickness. I suppose that tapering it beforehand makes things a little easier but it certainly isn't necessary.
In my previous post I'm referring to something completely different.

I actually typed (and remembered) that step backwards. The taper we introduced was 5/8" at the nut end (steel string) and 3/4" at the heel end. I think you were on target. I have corrected my OP to reflect this clarification.

_________________
Registered Architect (Texas, New York)
LEED AP