Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi folks.
I'm new here and new to guitar building.


The guitar I'm building has a spanish foot or spanish heel.
I read that when the sides are slotted into the neck that the traditional method is that the sides are not glued into the slots, and that buzzing is prevented by using a tiny spot of glue or a wedge.

Can anyone shed any light an whats meant by this, or how to go about fitting a neck using wedges?
I guess glue spots means little dots of glue on the periphery of the joint rather than internal to the joint.
There isn't alot of literature i can find about it.
I'm worried the neck will move or slip or buzz.
I can't picture in my head what a "Wedge" system consits of in a spanish foot"


I've already slotted the neck etc and could simply glue the sides into the slots.
But i'm intrigued by this glueless system, and it sounds quite helpful in terms of potential future neck resets.

Having said that, the guitar i'm working on is guitar number 2
Guitar number one i made by reading and following instructions to the letter, which meant going against tradition, and glueing the joint.

But tradition is a wonderful thing.

Whats the best method?
Glue or no glue?
how does one do that?

Cheers,
Claire

No need to glue the sides into the neck with Spanish construction. It will not be a problem.

I use the wedge construction... a bit difficult to explain (pictures are on my other computer), but its the same as Spanish construction, except another line is cut and the wood between the lines chiseled out. The second line is cut so there is a wedge shaped channel tapering from 5mm open at the top to 10mm open at the back (for me), and the sides are butted up against the outside and a wedge is fitted on the inside to secure it tightly.

The wedge is glued in, but the side is not glued on the outside. Its quite strong.

I hope this helps some....

_________________
Instagram: @jfrenchluthier
Web: https://www.jfrenchguitars.com/

Hi Claire and welcome to the OLF!

Great folks here will welcome you as well, enjoy the best lutherie forum on tha planet!

Serge

Here are the slots Joshua was talking about. In the second pic you can see the wedges are glued in...

Thanks for the info guys.
And thanks Ron for the pics.
Great looking guitar, Ron.
It looks as though you've put finish on the foot internals.

The one i'm making is a flamenco so i scrimped as much as i could to save weight and made the foot internals alot smaller.
I think if i took more timber out to make wedge slots i'd be comprimisng strength in my build.
But I'll absolutey incorporate the wedge idea into my next guitar, which I've alreay started.

This guitar building is kind of addictive.

So thank you guys so much.

Hugs,
Claire

Hey Ron ! You have pix of the neck stuck on? I've never seen this kind of configuration before! Thanks

_________________
Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

I was taught to bring the thickness of the ends of sides down until they fit into the heel slots with slight pressure, just snug in the slots where there is no gap between heel and sides. If you go too far you use a shim or tiny wedge. No glue. That's what I did, it worked fine.

[QUOTE=Billy T] Hey Ron ! You have pix of the neck stuck on? I've never seen this kind of configuration before! Thanks[/QUOTE]

I'm not real sure what you'd like to see. Here is a few more pics. Maybe JFrench will find his. I'd enjoy seeing them as well.









This last one is really deceptive. The slots look a LOT larger than what they really are. After cutting away the slots the Piece of wood that is left still connecting the heel/foot to the neck is about 10mm-15mm wide on the bottom and tapers up to about 35mm wide under the fingerboard. I'm not looking at one but I believe thats pretty close.

    Ah! Neck and block same! Little slots and wedges hold sides! I've never seen that! Doesn't look especially solid!

    Classical only right? I'd hate to do a reset on that! Thanks Ron.

_________________
Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

[QUOTE=Billy T]     Ah! Neck and block same! Little slots and wedges hold sides! I've never seen that! Doesn't look especially solid!

    Classical only right? I'd hate to do a reset on that! Thanks Ron.[/QUOTE]

This type of joint is extremely solid and stable over the long run when done properly. Yes, this is classical only, and there is usually no neck resets done on classical guitars. If something gets way out of whack, the easier solution is to remove the fretboard and plane it to the correct angle again.

Cheers!

John