Bolt-on necks

[Mike Bunting]

What's the feeling on here about bolt on necks?

[Mario Proulx]

..

[Mike Snyder]

My understanding is that they come in two flavors. Mortise and tenon necks ala Flatiron/Weber, where the bolts (or screws) serve to index the joint in assembly until the adhesive sets, and some folks bolt them on much as a Fender guitar neck. At this point, the old Flatiron mandos have considerable history without a tendency to neck joint failure. The others, I know not. Dovetail joints can fail, I know for a fact. It's said to be a rare occurrance. That doesn't help much when it happens to your best mandolin. Thank heavens for warranties.

[fishtownmike]

Hard to do on mandolins unless it has an oval or round sound hole. I personally don't like them. I think an dovetail is actually easier....Mike

[Big Joe]

Worked well for Frankenstein. Just make sure the bolts are big enough and don't get in the way of turning your head :) .

[groveland]

Works well for Rigel, too.

[mando.player]

Guess I might be little biased. I've got two with bolt on necks. A Rigel and a Breedlove. Both companies are held in wide regard for their instruments and i rarely hear about the neck joint being a deciding factor. I think both joints can be poorly executed and vice versa.

On a related note, Ted E. (jazzmando.com) is having a Rigel R200 mandola converted to a 10 string instrument. Off with the old neck, on with the new one. He's also thinking of adding fanned frets.

[shawnee creek]

John Wynn of Wynn mandolins has been building them with bolt on necks for years. He has lots of satisfied customers, among them Jesse McReynolds has bought at least two. Mike Holmes

[Mike Black]

The Summit mandolins are bolt on necks. They all sound great. The neck actually bolts into the trust-rod that's in the neck. :whistling:

[grandcanyonminstrel]

Flatiron, Collings, Breedlove, Rigel, and a host of thers use it. If you are looking to use the design concept in a new build, you have a lot of things to consider, but if it is on an existing mandolin that you like, I wouldn't worry too much about the bolt vs. no bolt issue.

It is really more of a something that someone who is trying to manufacture larger quantities of instruments with relatively low paid semi- skilled workers has to work with. I can say that comfortably, having worked in one of the large production shops cranking out two mandolins every day before lunch, making $7 per hour while some bean counter dork always yelled out insults and told me to move faster and quit talking.... For them, the bolt on was part of their manufatcuring process. I've also built a few in my shop that use a bolt on neck that is almost undetectable, using along handled wrench going in through the endpin hole.

For just a few instruments, I think that it may be more work than simply cutting a clean dovetail by hand. The only thing I use these days is a dovetail and hot hide glue for neck to body joints.

j.
www.condino.com

[hank]

If I remember well Sound to Earth has a small explanation on their site about their mortise and tenon neck joinery. In essence it amounts to the ease and repeatable precision of the neck angle. With the mortise and tenon the neck angle can be changed to whatever the desired specs require then locked there with the pin or bolt. A good dovetail joint with the neck angle exactly where you want it separates the very skilled from the not so skilled. Worse if the angle is way off it can turn into a butcher job with strength and sonic transfer compromised.

[Charles E.]

I have been using bolt on necks for awhile, the mandolin I made for myself in 2001 has been very stable, has not changed a fraction. I use a mortise and tennon with knock down furnature hardware. Here are some pic's

It works for me.

[Charles E.]

I will have to add that this is a mock up joint to show the concept. I have built guitars with Mahogany necks using screw inserts, glued with epoxy in the end grain of the neck with great success but Maple end grain does not work as well. So I went for the 10mm barrel bolts embeded in the neck, you can use long ones or short ones, I dont know if it matters. Of course it works best with an oval holed instrument for ease of access.

[jim simpson]

I picked up a few acoustic no name guitars recently to experiment with. One is a dreadnought that needs a neck reset. I plan to follow Frank Ford's example of cutting the neck from the body (as I'm pretty sure it has a dowel joint) and embed threaded inserts into the but of the neck, then I will run bolts through the neck block (from the sound hole) into the threaded inserts in the neck.
I also plan to do this with a tenor conversion. You can either use brass threaded inserts or inserts called bee-stingers.

[Ivan Kelsall]

Both Weber & Summit Mandolins use bolts to hold the neck in position whilst the glued joint sets.The bolts are used to very accurately set the neck angle. My Weber Fern sounds great,& so does the Summit F-5 Artist,belonging to a freind of mine. I've played a few excellent Mandolins ie. Daley,side by side with mine,& couldn't notice any difference that i'd put down to the bolts.
I don't think of this form of neck attachment as a 'true' bolt-on neck,that has no other means of keeping it in place,rather a bolt re-inforced,glued neck joint,
Ivan

[majorbanjo]

I've played some very good bolt on neck instruments....but mandolins and guitars that I've preferred most have not had bolt on necks.....but that's just my experience....