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A little background:
For the last 20 guitars I have been using a butt joint bolt on neck with a bolt down FB extension. I have not had any problems with the exception of one guitar that came back for repairs after 3 years on the road with a full time artist...
That guitar had been around the world a couple of times and sadly was not very well looked after by it's owner or crew. Along with damage to the top from what appears to have been some type of blow that left a couple of nasty dents and two cracks, it appears that the FB had acquired a hump from the 14th fret to the 21st. Not just your typical Martin style hump this was more of a rise that peeked about the 18th fret then came back down at the 21st.
The glue had failed between the FB and the plywood extension. After removing the neck I noticed that the plywood extension had also taken on this bowed shape although it had been bolted down. I assume that was because of the tension caused by the frets close together down there and the glue giving way that caused the FB to bow. So, re-glued, floss the neck, dress the frets repair the top and back on the road it goes.
Currently I have a couple of builds in the works and noticed after gluing on the FBs they had a bit of a bow in them also. I found this odd given the fact the extensions are only 5 inches long and are 7 ply finnish birch. Is the glue introducing to much moisture?
After this I started looking into an alternative for these extensions. I bought some birch core carbon fiber sheets from Dragon plate (pricey!) and thought that would solve the problem but have had trouble with epoxies and the Ebony (in another thread).
So.... upon combing the archives here I came upon a few threads where these types of neck joints were discussed and seeing how Trevor Gore, Bourgeois and others are approaching it I am second guessing my approach.
There was some discussion about the difference between a continuous extension (inset back into the neck) verses a partial (floating) and the affect on neck resets and the "kink" that may appear at the 14th fret.
I would like to hear some opinions on these things as well as:
What type of wood/material is best for the extension?
How many fasteners should be used to pull the FB down to the top?
What types of glues are best?
Anything else that may influence this type of joint.
Thanks!
Tommy
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