Holy Hannah, I can't believe I missed this thread until today! What a beauty. Amazing work.
The fretboard looks a lot like my classical, very wide and very flat. What's the radius? If you mentioned it, I missed it, I'm sorry.
While reading, I found this exchange:
Danuda said:
Cagey said:
ubershallman said:
I always thought a scarf joint was supposed to be nice and strong. I was under the impression it was a much better solution than a traditional tilt back design. :dontknow:
It's stronger than a butt joint because you have a larger gluing surface, but there's no mechanical interlock so you're still relying on the strength of the glue and the integrity of the wood. The glue is generally stronger than the wood these days, but wood hasn't changed any. It'll tear along the grain next to the glue joint, rather than the joint itself separating. Because wood has a lot of shear strength perpendicular to the grain, but substantially less parallel to it, you don't often see straight necks busted at the headstock. But, look at the vast majority of broken necks with tilt-back headstocks and you'll most often see they're busted at the scarf joint where parallel stresses exist.
I broke the neck of my acoustic guitar once at the headstock. The scarf joint didn't fail it was a littlebehind that. I suspect most angle headstocks break because when you knock them over the headstock hits hard first.
After a day of wiring and soldering, which took me an exceptionally long time (first time I've ever wired a guitar, though not sure if that's an excuse for my slowness), I went to put my guitar on the stand and I must have half-assed it, because down she went. Thank goodness I don't have kids, because it was a serious parental neglect moment. After picking her up and a quick exam, all seemed well, but looking at the conversation above, I took another look at the neck at the point where it meets the headstock and there is -- I hope it's just in the finish -- a 45-degree crack right at the apex of the right angle slot in which the nut sits. My poor baby. :sad:
Still, I am so amazed and impressed at your build. Just wiring my guitar was a crucible. Plaudits and accolades to you for doing all of that work and winding up with such an astoundingly stellar product. She's a real beauty.
