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I haven’t tried yet but as an exercise and because I am wondering what is the negative effect on a player of having a thicker neck at the first fret? I was had a neck on a 10 string I made that had the same thickness nut to body and I liked that. On a mandolin is that even practical? Mine are thinner at the neck and thicker at the body is there a reason for that I am not aware of?
Some of it is tradition.
Funny thing about traditions-- very often the traditions are adopted for good reasons, but what the reasons were gets forgotten as time passes into antiquity.
It may also be that it might be easier for a player to shift back on a neck that's got some taper.
Rickenbacker made at least some electric guitar necks that were pretty uniform in thickness. I've also seen it on some classical guitars of quality.
Some of it is bending strength vs mass reduction. By making the base stiffer there is less deflection out near the end. If the full length were the large size of the base there would be a lot of unnecessary weight. If it were the smallest size it would bend a lot more. By tapering you reduce mass without hurting stiffness as much. Look at cantilever structures or tall poles and towers. They are often tapered similarly.
I might give an even neck a try or the same or experimentation. Thanks guys!
The way I look at it, the neck is widening under the strings anyway which is making it stronger. I always keep the same thickness from the nut to where the heel curve starts.
Thickness increases stiffness more than the same amount of width increase. Stiffness increases as the cube of the thickness but linearly to the width.Quote:
Originally Posted by Harley Marty
My Brentrup stays the same to the heel. I have a guitar I built 30+ years ago that does the same. Neither have neck problems. Both have truss rods.
I just looked at a few other guitars and they all stay the same to the heel. Even a 1928 Martin doesn't get bigger as it goes up the neck.
Interesting. I was looking at some pro builders websites and noticed some necks were thinner and got thicker. I just thought that was normal.
My 2004 Martin D28 is about 1/8 inch thicker at the 11th fret than the first.