Putting veneer on the back of a headstock

[Dave Olds]

Hi there,

I am toying with the idea of putting an ebony veneer on the back of the headstock on my current build - maybe with a thin maple veneer underneath. I have seen a few pictures of guitars like this in the past, but I have just trawled round the forum and can't find any. I have couple of questions for anyone who may have done this.

Given the curve to the volute, how would you go about bending and gluing the veneers in place. ( I assume you would attach these back veneers before routing the headstock shape )

Any recommendations about the thickness of material to use would be good.

Also - this will mean thinning the headstock to maintain the correct total thickness of 15-16mm in total ( to accommodate the tuners ). With headplate material on each side of the headstock, will I run the risk of weakening the headstock overall by doing this.

And last but not least - can anyone recommend a good supplier for ebony for this purpose.

For info - I expect the headstock to be a similar shape to my last one - as below.



Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

Dave

[jeffhigh]

The veneer on the back of the headstock will strengthen the headstock as long as it is straight grained without runout.
And since you already do a smiley face volute, that gives a perfect termination location.
If you are using a one piece neck it provides a strengthening layer without short grain, If you are using a scarfed headstock it will cover up the join.

[Nick]

Hi Dave, I can't see a problem with thining the headstock to put veneers on the back as Jeff pointed out it would possibly strengthen this area as it is a lamination in effect.
I have seen other makers heat bend the rear veneer to follow the volute curve. Dave Anderson being one who also kindly put a few pictures up.
viewtopic.php?t=1823&highlight=

I use two suppliers mainly, either ALS in Oz or in the USA Exotic Woods aren't too bad. There select grade is usually nice and black or damn close to it. If you let me know the size you want I have a piece intended for my latest build but never used, I could get it couriered up to you.
Another option if you just want a thin facing to match the maple thickness is dyed Maple which is as black as your hat, that will form the shape of your volute without any heating, just pull it down with clamps. I have a fair bit of that if you want to try a couple of pieces. I used this on the front of my Archtops and once it gets a coat of jam it looks damn close to ebony (if not blacker). Another option is the black fibre veneer from LMI which again will bend without any treatment. I had a bad experience with a sheet of the 60 thou stuff not being black all the way through (area's of grey showed up after sanding through the surface), however I would like to add that LMI assured me this wasn't the norm and credited me the amount no problems and other makers use it so I just unfortunately got a 'rogue' piece. I have used the thinner stuff alot as purfling lines and this has always behaved.

[Allen]

I like to have a back lamination on all my headstocks now, as it really does add some strength and hides any scarf joint. I've done them as much as 2 mm thick, and just put a bend for the volute on the heating iron. It's really simple to do. The most difficult part it clamping it in place, but making a shaped caul should be well within your ability, after building the guitar.

[liam_fnq]

g'day dave. I had to bend the rear head stock veneer at allen's uke class on saturday.

I held it in place (on the neck) at the top of the headstock with my fingers and used a hot pipe to bend to the exact shape of the neck/ headstock transition. only took a second or two. i was surprised by how easy it was. i had to give it a little extra go by itself to negate spring back but as i said, dead easy. i spent more time thinkin about it than it took to do.

[Arnt]

I am doing a "build thread" over on LuthierCommunity, here is an excerpt that covers how I do this.



This will be a slothead, and I aim for a final thickness of 19 mm. I will use both front and back headstock veneers, which both will be 1.5 mm, so I need to thin the headstock to 16 mm. I mark this distance with a marking gauge.






Most of the wood wasting is done with a Safe-T planer.






The last mm or so is removed with the drum sander






The radius of the drum determines the geometry of my vulute / hand stop / whatchamacallit...






So far so good






The veneers are attached to a melamine covered backing board with double stick tape and fed to the drum sander.






Bending the back veneer on the hot pipe






Fits fine






Scraping the gluing surface. The sander has 80 grit paper which doesn’t leave the wood very smooth . I run the scraper over all gluing surfaces immediately before applying the glue as a matter of course.






This “jigâ€

[Allen]

There you go. Couldn't be easier. Thanks Arnt.

[Lillian]

Nicely done Arnt. Thanks.

[Dave Olds]

Thanks a lot for all your replies - and a special thanks to Arnt for the great pictures - it certainly makes things easier when you have that kind of assistance.

I gotta say again - it never ceases to amaze me how helpful people are on this forum, and for a newbie like me the support is invaluable. I only hope that someday I will have the experience to be able to pass onto others in the same way. I don't know if it is luthiers in general - but this is certainly a great bunch.

Nick O has kindly offered to help me out with some black veneer, so I will be giving this a go very soon.

Thanks again

Dave

[kiwigeo]

Cool tips from a Cool Norwegian :serg