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I wonder what the pros and cons of a reinforced neck(from both the builder and players perspective)and why some luthiers choose this method over a solid wooden neck?
If the cedar you use is well cut and dry, reinforcement is not nescessary and you can make the neck the thickness you want and the heel the shape you want.
If the cedar is very dense and thus heavy, I even chisel some of the centar away in order to compensate for the extra weight. Weight in the neck is not something possitive on a flamenco guitar
If the cedar you use is well cut and dry, reinforcement is not nescessary and you can make the neck the thickness you want and the heel the shape you want.
If the cedar is very dense and thus heavy, I even chisel some of the centar away in order to compensate for the extra weight. Weight in the neck is not something possitive on a flamenco guitar
So you could say that using reinforcment is a way of cuting a corner in the build bu allowing you to use "cheaper" woods and building faster?
If the cedar you use is well cut and dry, reinforcement is not nescessary and you can make the neck the thickness you want and the heel the shape you want.
Anders is correct but there is one advantage of using a laminated (reinforced) neck. It allows you to use pieces of cedar that are otherwise too small for a neck. For example you can take a flat sawn plank of cedar and cut strips off the edge for laminating resulting in quartered stock (of course the plank has to be thick enough to make half a neck).
I have taken to splitting neck blanks perfectly down the center on the bandsaw, then flipping one half end for end and epoxying it back together. I think just having that glue joint in there gives the neck some reinforcement without adding much if any weight. I do the same with my heel stack and have a permanent center line for carving the heel The luthier that I work for/with makes a center reinforced section for classical guitars out of 3 laminations of neckwood each 1/8 " thick with fiberglass mesh glued in between the layers. Then under that he runs a 1/8" x 3/8" carbon fiber rod, and caps it off with a strip of ebony I've made 4 necks like that for him... it's a lot of glue operations but the neck doesn't move after it's on the guitar. For flamencos I think that would be too heavy and frankly totally unneccessary.
I think some luthiers reinforce all necks just to cover their ass so they don't get any guitars back in the shop with relief problems or whatever
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I've made 4 necks like that for him... it's a lot of glue operations but the neck doesn't move after it's on the guitar. 
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