Tilt Neck Construction

This method can be used for any style of classical guitar. However it is not practical for guitars without a traditional round soundhole. There are a series of steps in this method. The  complex headblock is fabricated and fitted before the back and soundboard are attached. You can see the heavy cross brace attached to the headblock with the ebony pivot plate inserted into the fabrication. The neck must be housed into this fabrication so it will sit embedded in the sides and the soundboard.

The neck is continued to the soundhole and the heel is continued for an inch into the body. The thickness of the neck is an inch right through before carving. Because this mass extends right to the end of the fingerboard all our top notes ring loud and true right to the last fret.  We want to embed the neck so that the bottom edge of the fingerboard will be flush with the top of the soundboard at the 12thfret so we arrange the pivot plate to engage in the neck checkout at this point.

Once the neck is engaged into the pivot plate and neck housing it can pivot but to control the position we introduce two elements. There’s  a grub screw that is mounted in the neck with a hex key head that is accessed via a small hole in the fingerboard. The grub screw rides inside a steel insert that is threaded for the grub screw and threaded on the outside, so it is screwed into the neck by drilling and tapping the timber to accept it. When adjusted this grub screw bears against a metal plate set into the pivot plate.

As well there’s a lock bolt that is inserted from inside the guitar up through the neck housing until it engages with the neck. This prevents the neck from disengaging with no strings on and it can be tightened to solidly hold the neck in place. However this is not necessary as in practise the assembly is a good tight fit so the lock bolt is best to be slightly backed off from fully tight which allows the neck to be adjusted without complication.

Once the tilt construction reaches this stage we need to ascertain the exact position of the soundhole and cut the neck off accordingly.

Because the neck goes right through the soundboard to the soundhole we must have good support for the soundboard along each edge of the fingerboard and across to the body on each side.  So the structure must have integrity to maintain the tensions that are produced by the strings.