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what is the purpose of putting a strip of ebony down the back of the neck? I have seen this mainly on lower end guitars and was wondering if this is cheaper than using a solid piece of wood for the neck?
RE: ebony stripe down the back of th... (in reply to Güiro)
quote:
ORIGINAL: Güiro
what is the purpose of putting a strip of ebony down the back of the neck? I have seen this mainly on lower end guitars and was wondering if this is cheaper than using a solid piece of wood for the neck?
Jeff Highland is right of course but it does have one value. It allows one to use pieces of wood that are too narrow for a neck. Of course you could laminate multiple pieces without the dark wood stripe.
Posts: 302
Joined: May 27 2005
From: Zürich, Switzerland
RE: ebony stripe down the back of th... (in reply to Güiro)
Hy Güiro
I agree with Jeff and John. An ebony stripe as a neck reinforcement is not beneficial to the sound of the guitar, nor is it helping the neck to become any stiffer. Ebony is heavy, has high damping properties and it is quite unstable. Actually we already have an ebony reinforcement by glueing an ebony fretboard on the neck, so there is no need for additional ebony. Too much ebony will make the neck too heavy and this might result in a top-heavy and badly balanced guitar. This is valid especially on blancas, where the cypress body is usually of little weight.
A well cut and well dried piece of honduran cedar is still the best material for a guitar neck and it does not require neck reinforcement. Honduran cedar is stiff enough and it usually doesn't warp unless it is not well dried. Many antique luthiers such as Santos Hernandez, Marcelo Barbero or Modesto Borreguero as well as contemporary makers Reyes, Barba do not use neck reinforcements. Ebony is heavy and very unstable, so there is more disadvantage than advantage to it's use on a neck. If a neckreinforcement is used, it should be a stiff and stable material of little weight. Some contemporary luthiers use graphite reinforcements. This material might be good from a technical point of view but i personally don't like to have any artifical components on my guitar. So if i do a neck reinforcement, i use a stripe of hickory and i make it hidden. I don't really like to have the reinforcement visible on a flamenco guitar neck.
RE: ebony stripe down the back of th... (in reply to Güiro)
An ebony strip down the rear of the neck would contribute powerfully to the stiffness of the neck. The ebony fingerboard is structurally in the place where it will do the least good It is under compression, a force that the weakest of woods deals with well. On the other hand the back of the neck is normally not flat, so the raised portion at the center deals disproportionately with any loads. What is more, these loads peak on the narrowest section since it is higher than surrounding wood. And ideal place for structure. There is no doubt this is a superior structural design. If the neck was the only connection to the wing of an aircraft you were flying on, you would pray that it had the ebony center line.
Obviously the fact that many guitars are made without a center line shows that the center line is not required.
RE: ebony stripe down the back of th... (in reply to Tam DL)
quote:
ORIGINAL: Tam DL
An ebony strip down the rear of the neck would contribute powerfully to the stiffness of the neck. The ebony fingerboard is structurally in the place where it will do the least good It is under compression, a force that the weakest of woods deals with well. On the other hand the back of the neck is normally not flat, so the raised portion at the center deals disproportionately with any loads. What is more, these loads peak on the narrowest section since it is higher than surrounding wood. And ideal place for structure. There is no doubt this is a superior structural design. If the neck was the only connection to the wing of an aircraft you were flying on, you would pray that it had the ebony center line.
Obviously the fact that many guitars are made without a center line shows that the center line is not required.
This is a common misconception. Weight or mass does not equate to stiffness or resistance to bending. The Cedar neck is more likely stiffening the fingerboard rather than the obverse. The dark wood stripe does nothing but add weight.
Posts: 401
Joined: Mar. 5 2010
From: Caves Beach Australia
RE: ebony stripe down the back of th... (in reply to Güiro)
Ebony Has a modulus of elasticity about 50% higher than mahogany but it is less stable with changing humidity. Unless you have quite a wide stripe it is not going to make much difference to the stiffness of the neck. And do we really need a stiffer neck anyhow? Personally I think the striped look bad especially with a plain heel or headstock attached
RE: ebony stripe down the back of th... (in reply to Jeff Highland)
I love disagreement!
I seem to recall that the last Kohno I looked at had 2 ebony stripes on the back of the neck, at a slight angle (not parallel to the neck).
I also seem to recall that one of the solutions to making clocks maintain stable timekeeping in variable atmospheric conditions was making certain parts from two different materials that when combined would counteract each other?Of course that was metal and the tolerances required were another ballpark.
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RE: ebony stripe down the back of th... (in reply to Güiro)
I have always believed that the ebony stripe is there to counteract the movement of the fingerboard if there is a change in humidity. A high humidity can bend the neck backwards because of the expansion of the ebony fingerboard.
RE: ebony stripe down the back of th... (in reply to Anders Eliasson)
No, I don't use the ebony strip. But the reason I mentioned has to me seemed to be the only explanation of why builders like Ramirez, Bernabe, Kohno and others would use it. As we know it makes à heavier neck, the cedar doesn't need it to be strong enough and it is not difficult to find cedar wide and good enough to be used as necks. I couldn't come up with another explanation than dealing with ebony's quite quite big humidity movement. Thats all. I don't know if it works and I don't know the true reason for those builders.
RE: ebony stripe down the back of th... (in reply to Anders Eliasson)
Ok, for what it's worth.......... I think if you have properly seasoned, stable wood, there is no reason to put this in. But.... The instruments I tend to build have a bit of decoration and I'm always looking at ways to exploit this, consequently........ I've just built four necks all with reinforced rosewood strips (solid). This was so I could inlay some other binding down this centre strip and also to try a different way of constructing the neck. Method used was to flip one side of the neck upside down. This I am led to believe would compensate for any warping in badly seasoned or wood that was likely to move. Most of what I'm using has been well seasoned so I'm going through the motions of what is for me, a new neck construction. More effort, more visually attractive (I think), no real impact on sound. Theoretically laminates should be stronger than one piece, but are you going to drive a bus over it? Who knows, at some stage I might go back to no strip, but for now this is where I'm at. Cheers people,
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