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Hi

Newbie here

How long (end to end)should my neck blank be for a 12 fret 00 1932 martin?

Jonny

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"Practice enough till the results aren't hopes but expectations" forum member Peter Havriluk

Are you speaking of a 4x3 blank for 2 nested necks? A 24" blank will do it.

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I don't have a plan and just building from a body template(Waldron MS 12 fret) of a martin 00 body size so I have no idea on the neck specs so maybe neck "blank" is the wrong term here.
I know they are shorter but not sure if its just the difference of the 2 frets or if the lower(belly area) bridge location comes into play here or not.
Like I said newbie,not sure on how to compensate the lower bridge location on 12 fretters.
Any help here for specs (12 fret OO)would be great
cheers

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"Practice enough till the results aren't hopes but expectations" forum member Peter Havriluk

I don't know if this helps or not, but I recently built a 12 fret 00 from the GLS plan here: http://ultimate-guitar-online.ultimate- ... ucts_id=10

Look at the dimensions on the description and if it is close to what you are trying to build maybe grab the plan for 17 bucks. It's a digital delivery so you'll have it right away.

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If you are committed to building to a specific body shape and having 12 frets clear of the body, but you don't have plans for the rest of the guitar, you kinda need to work backwards a bit. Here is what I would do:

1. Decide what your scale length will be, and how much compensation you want to add. This will determine where the bridge and saddle have to sit, and also where the nut has to sit. That last one will help you figure out how long the neck has to be. For a 12 fret guitar, the nut is half the scale length from the edge of the body.
2. Decide what style headstock you will have.
3. Draw out on large paper (the kind that is 2 feet wide and comes on a roll) the body shape, bridge location, and saddle location.
4. Draw lines from the saddle to where the nut has to be, and draw the nut on there, too.
5. Draw your headstock on the end of the nut.
6. Decide whether you are going to cut the neck from a single billet or whether you are going to slice, flip and glue the headstock using thinner stock.
7. Buy and cut wood big enough to fit whichever you decided in number 6.

I hope this helps. Have you read the Cumpiano book, or some other book that deals with planning out the construction of a guitar from scratch? If not, that sounds like the next thing to spend money on before you buy anything else. Good luck with the build.

Generally speaking, yes your neck will be shorter by the difference of the distance between the 2th and 24th fret. If you have a plan for a 14 fret neck (of the same scale length) then you can use a blank that is that much shorter but I'm not really sure this is what you are asking; it sounds like you don't have a plan or template.

Before you buy any wood you need to decide a few things and draw up your plan. You need to settle on what your scale length will be, how you are going to attach the neck to the body and how you will achieve the peghead angle (and heel height). All three of these will determine how long the blank must be.

How scale length factors in is obvious, for a twelve fret neck the neck shaft will be half the scale (don't forget to add for the nut too.

Remember, if you are doing a dovetail or M/T neck joint, that measurement must be added to the neck blank. I do a bolt on butt joint but still leave a bit extra to cut off once I have the peghead angle and FB surface defined.

There are several ways to get a neck out of a piece of wood. Sometimes you buy wood to fit the strategy, sometimes you choose a strategy to fit the wood you want to use. If you are using a thick billet to cut a one piece neck (or 2) out of it is pretty straight forward. If you are cutting a scarf joint and it is your first, you need to read up on how that goes together before you cut wood. It might not hurt to practice on some scrap first. If you are adding a block for the heel it is pretty self explanatory but if you are stacking the heel you will need to figure out how many (depends on the thickness of the blank) and how long each cut off must be.

I would draw out the neck from the side keeping the above in mind. It will help you visualize what you need.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

A 3 X 4 that is 24" long is plenty for two 14-fret long scale necks (1 piece). 12 fret necks are about 1 3/8" shorter. That means a blank that is 22 5/8" long will make two that are long scale (25.4"). Short scale necks are about 1/4" shorter.

I have a pattern for a Martin 12-fret 00.

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John

Jonny, I make all of my necks using a scarfed joint at the head stock and stacked blocks for the heel using one piece of 3x1 mahogany 30 inches long (standard size from LMII but I think now their neck blanks are 7/8 thick). Here is a 12 fret 00 neck being laid out on the plans showing each of the pieces - the little block under the head stock joint will be carved into the the "dart" or volute.



Here is the glue up - the pieces will want to skate around on each other so block them carefully



And the layout lines for the carving



I usually do simple M&T bolt on joints however this will work fine for a dovetail. Also I like to do the slotted headstock before I glue that scarf joint - it is much easier to drill or route.

Pm Sent

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"Practice enough till the results aren't hopes but expectations" forum member Peter Havriluk