When to leave well enough alone

[John Coloccia]

A local hotshot has been playing out with my latest prototype. It sounds AWESOME and totally blows away what he's currently playing with. Not a brag...its nothing special. It's just really targeted towards live music as opposed to being a little more balanced for studio and live work.

Anyhow, I ripped off the fingerboard to fix a minor issue abd I also updated the neck carve. For whatever reason, I completely botched the nut width. I recarved the neck into a 1.5" width AND rolled the fingerboard edges that left me a string spacing of 1.45" from E to E. FAR too close for adult size fingers.

DOH!!

It's now firewood. C'est la vie. I just wasn't paying attention and I did something stupid. It was good practice. I don't get to replace many fingerboards. It's quite a process on a set neck and was good experience. I WON'T make that mistake again

I'm extremely disappointed, but I'll take it as a learning experience. Number one, know when to leave well enough alone. Number two is PAY ATTENTION to all details.

I just thought I'd post because no one ever posts their screw ups. Here's my screw up.

[george wilson]

Try making it into a 4 string tenor guitar!!!!:)

[John Coloccia]

You're a gem, George. That's a great idea :) It will give me a chance to learn how to wind pickups too!

[Chris Fournier]

Chasing "tenths" often leads to that kind of outcome!

There are two kinds of guitar players...

The kind who picks up a guitar and plays the strings off of it and says "That's nice! Perhaps some heavier strings and a bit more relief and it would be perfect!" And the guy who picks up the guitar, comoments that he "prefers mahogany necks with a satin/semi gloss finish" then plays for a bit and says that "the string spacing between D and G is 10 thou wider than he likes, he prefers relief only from the 10th to 14th frets and bound cocobolo fingerboards are superior for jazz fussion."

I have learned to ignore the latter!

[John Coloccia]

Chasing "tenths" often leads to that kind of outcome!

There are two kinds of guitar players...

The kind who picks up a guitar and plays the strings off of it and says "That's nice! Perhaps some heavier strings and a bit more relief and it would be perfect!" And the guy who picks up the guitar, comoments that he "prefers mahogany necks with a satin/semi gloss finish" then plays for a bit and says that "the string spacing between D and G is 10 thou wider than he likes, he prefers relief only from the 10th to 14th frets and bound cocobolo fingerboards are superior for jazz fussion."

I have learned to ignore the latter!

Actually, the guy I'm working with is awesome. The issues with this guitar started with a mistake on my part. I switched to a 3/16" fingerboard at the last minute but didn't update any of my neck angle/depth calculations, so I ended up 1/16" too low at the bridge. I got away with it but just barely. It doesn't bother him, but I use my fingers a lot more than he does and that 1/16" less clearance really bugged me. I decided to replace the fingerboard with a full 1/4", but of course that meant recarving the neck. Somewhere in all of that, I lost the nut width. I'd never done that before and I just really wasn't paying attention that day for whatever reason.


There were tweaks I wanted to make anyhow. I'm switching to a bolt-on neck...I'm not liking what the set neck is doing to the tone. The bolt on should be slightly snappier in my experience (though it could all just be in my head). Maybe a couple other minor tweaks.

[Chris Fournier]

Well now it's clear to me that you are a "tweaker" and this addiction cannot be helped! I too have been sorely bitten by mid build changes to the specs, usually after I have made certain that nothing would go wrong... I will likely fall into this trap for the rest of my days.

I have not heard that a bolted neck changes the tone. On acoustics I have found that customers expect a "Martin" style neck joint when they are paying the custom guitar $. The electric folks are more accepting of the bolt-on; thank you Leo Fender!

[John Coloccia]

Well now it's clear to me that you are a "tweaker" and this addiction cannot be helped! I too have been sorely bitten by mid build changes to the specs, usually after I have made certain that nothing would go wrong... I will likely fall into this trap for the rest of my days.

I have not heard that a bolted neck changes the tone. On acoustics I have found that customers expect a "Martin" style neck joint when they are paying the custom guitar $. The electric folks are more accepting of the bolt-on; thank you Leo Fender!

I don't think it matters much on acoustics. I don't use anything but bolt ons for acoustics. Most of the contact (the part that matters anyhow) is the heal, which is never glued on anyway, and the fingerboard extension, which is always glued down. I've been using Cumpiano's neck joint but I'm going to start experimenting with anchor bolts and doing away with the tenon entirely. I think it serves no purpose other than a place for the barrel nuts to live.

On electrics, I've been finding that set necks seem to sound slightly duller than the equivalent bolt on. I converted a couple just for kicks and that seemed to be the case. Duller's a bad word...I don't mean it in a negative way. It's funny because everyone thinks that a set neck is harder to do but my experience is that it's FAR more work to do a bolt on. Set necks are easy. Route a channel, glue it in, grab a rasp and carve until it looks nice. Bolt ons actually require a little planning and precision, plus all the added work of installing the hardware.

Anyhow, we'll see. I'm not convinced switching to bolt-on will make a big difference, or any difference at all but we'll find out soon enough :)

[Chris Fournier]

I haven't strayed too far from the well worn path of tradition when it comes to neck joints on acoustics, Spanish foot on classics and flamencos and the good ol' dovetail on the steel string.

I have to say that I really wonder whether the complexity of the dovetail is required for the neck/body joint. Given other more modern metods I 'd guess it's not. I know of one acoustic builder who began using RTA fasteners on his steel string necks, I just couldn't get used to the look of that "Ikea" fastener in his beautiful guitars. An aesthetic hang up on my part.

When I first started build bolt on electrics I shot for a hand in glove fit between the body and neck. For me this was a mistake as the lacquer tended to suffer at the neck joint when the guitar was used, heavy string bending, bumps and perhaps even seasonal wood movement. I did see quite a few vintage Fenders in my shop and the joint was sloppy to say the least! This was one of my first "tolerance ah has". While I couldn't go as loose as Fender I did bump up the neck pocket by .030" to .040" and ended up with what I thought was decent craftsmanship and a more sound guitar.

I love the look of a set neck electric, the joint can look so sleek, especially under lacquer with a burst to black. Likely doesn't make a better guitar but I do know what you mean by "dull".

[Wes Grass]

I think Rick Turner, among others, have made comments that bolt-on necks are superior tone-wise ... at least on solid body electrics.