Does a laminated neck have to be symmetrical?

[slowlearner]

I'm building a neck with some scavenged liquidambar with a rather large knot in it. I decided yesterday the trick is to rip longwise and add some extra strips of timber, jarrah.

What I'm wondering now is if the blank I glue up has to be symmetrical from side to side?

Or, can I make up a liquorice allsort with anything anywhere? If so, what are the risks of warping down the track?

Thoughts?

[seeaxe]

Hi Pete

I would say that all woods have their own particular movement properties in response to temperature and moisture change so if you make an asymmetric neck you could expect it to do odd things. However, the more plies you have the less impact any individual wood can have. So if I was going to make it varied, I would use lots if thin plies rather than three or four bigger chunks.

It does have the potential to look like a dogs breakfast after a lot of work glueing shaping and sanding.

But as long as you have a back up, why not give it a try.

Would be interested to see the result.
Cheers
Richard

[kiwigeo]

One comment on using Jarrah.......I made a classical neck with two strips of Jarrah in between the Fijian mahogany. Working the neck with scrapers and spokeshaves was a pain due to bad tear out in the Jarrah.

[slowlearner]

Thanks guys. I'll keep it in mind. I should just post the thread on here...

[Jehu]

You could take it to an extreme, like the classic German archtop builders!

[slowlearner]

I ended up with a symetrical neck. Interesting exercise thinking it out though.

[lauburu]

That thing is so ugly that it's almost beautiful. My opinion, apologies if it gives offence.
Framus (also German) used to do super-laminated necks as well back in the 60's. They work very effectively. I have a 12 string Framus banjo from about that era and the neck is still straight as a die.
Miguel