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Hi guys,

Long story, but with the acoustic I'm building the headstock billet is only 69mm wide. I want to do a D-28 style tapered headstock, and have made some slight compromises on the design making the taper a bit shallower than usual to keep it as wide at the bottom as possible without looking horrible. However, in order to avoid the distance between the centre of the holes for the 1st and 6th string machine heads being narrower than the distance between the strings themselves at the nut, the machine head holes end up being 3/8" from the edge at the centre, rather than 1/2" as recommended. What this means is that once the hole has been drilled, there will only be 3/16" of material at the edge of the hole, rather than 5/16 you would normally end up with. The question is, is this too little timber or will it just about work?

Thanks, Tom

I think it would look strange if the 1st and 6th were not the same distance from the edge as the rest of them. You can try it in a piece of scrap to see how it looks.
The usual way to deal with making a wider headstock from a narrow neck blank is to glue some "ears" on the outside of the headstock (Google "guitar headstock ears" if you want to see some images of what I mean). You then put a headstock faceplate and a backstrap on it to cover the joins (and that reinforces your headstock at the same time as making it prettier).
Mark

There was a recent thread about this, pointing out a Martin-ism that I had never noticed before. Not all the peg holes are of equal distance from the edge on Martins. You can either search the forum or wait for one of our Martin aficionados to chime in. My hunch is that you're going to be okay - and maybe closer to spec than you think:)

Unless my math is off (always a possibility) 69 mm is 2.7". That is 0.3" less than my standard "Martin-like" headstock. Or, 0.15" less on each side. Plus, on a Martin headstock, as noted earlier, they are not all the same distance from edge. You have room.

That said, add wings. Easy to do, and if you are careful, it will look good. If you do add wings, try to match sanded color. Note the orientation of the grain as well, if, as I suspect, when you shape, you go through the glue boundary. You don't want the grain direction of the billet and that of the wings to be different, you will notice that after its too late.

viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=46071&start=50

This is true. On Martin solid pegheads, the e, a, b, e posts are arranged in a rectangle. Not noticeable unless you know it's there.

You'll be fine.

Pat

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

I think its enough material on the sides of the holes...but your tuning machines might stick out from the edge, which would look horrible. I'd find some scrap material and make ears as said above

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for all the tips and for your diagram, Kencierp. Interesting that Martin machine heads are played out in a rectangle. After a bit of Google image searching, I noticed that it was common for the centre of D-28 1 and 6 machine heads to be in line with the 1st and 6th fret slot. This interestingly means that the strings actually angle inwards from the nut to the inside edge of the machine head post.

Anyway, I decided to use this as my guide and simply reduced the taper of the headstock further still. We're talking maybe 1/8" either side so not that noticeable. Hopefully!

I'm not going to win any design awards for this one (especially given that I completely missed the knot in the veneer until it was too late!) but I don't hate it.

So having realised that there was a knot in my veneer (plain for all to see of course) and also my headstock veered off to one side slightly (is it just me who wonders how the hell I cocked things like this up in the first place?!). Long and the short is I trimmed it, winged it, and re-veneered with a much nicer cooba veneer. A belated thanks for the advice that I should have taken in the first place! Here's the new headstock with a German Shorthaired Pointer inlaid in MOP

Martin also adds a little extra space between the two "E" tuners and the other four tuners. Small, but just enough to keep the string from hittin the post as they pass by-

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The Biggest Little City, Nevada
www.hammondguitars.com
I love building guitars!

Haha now you tell me! Should be OK if Compiano is to be believed with regards machine head spacing

The drawing I posted points out that at least for the Martin spec paddle HS --- the B and A posts are not in line with the EG and ED they are pushed in toward the center line to provide clearance at the E posts. Compiano is not the first to over look this detail. The only complaints I read about a Wayne Henderson guitar was this B and A strings interference at the E posts.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

I hadn't clocked that. Looking at your diagram it actually suggests that the E6, A, B and E1 are all in line, with the D and G being a bit further spaced out. Hopefully it will work out on mine. I potentially could plug the D and G holes and re-drill as the washers should cover the repair. Might just see how I go though.