Thread: aluminium neck

Hi Ascon, you in Coledale? I used to live in Austinmer... I'm afraid I don't know much about how to make an aluminium neck, but there is a forum... http://www.metalnecks.com/
jack

I was born in coledale.

I once read about a bloke who made an Aluminium neck. He set up his guitar on stage before a gig (under stage lights) and found that heat from the lights warmed the aluminium enough that it expanded and sent the guitar out of tune.

I actually have a couple of Travis Bean guitars that were made in the 70's with aluminium necks through the body and connected to the bridge. the bass stays perfectly in tune and the 6 string needs very little tuning on stage, so they're pretty stable.
and thanks for the link to metalnecks, I've peroused(?) this forum a fair bit over the last year, even found people who could potentially make the neck for me, but one guy who told me back in feb that he'd do it and it'd take 6 weeks, is still saying he'll do it 8 months later and can't tell me when....so...anyway, thought I'd do a bit of research and give it a go myself.
Once I get started, I'll post progress photos and keep updates going.....of course it could take me 8 months, then I'll be eating my words...hehehe

ive been wanting to make one for the longest time (travis bean inspired as well). im a mechanical engineering student, and thinking i may be able to make one in a subject later on in the course. ive often considered getting a run of necks made and sold them, but that would be a while away.

just curious, but assuming that a band your interested in got you interested in beans, which band was it?

Good to see another from the beautiful Illawarra in here....

Originally Posted by black_labb

just curious, but assuming that a band your interested in got you interested in beans, which band was it?

why, Shellac of course...

Originally Posted by ascon

why, Shellac of course...

same with me, was curious if there are other bands that promote them as well. shellac is great

sounds like you need to find someone with a CNC mill

Is it worth habving a look at the Gittler guitar, which had a minimalist neck and a pot on each string? Andy Somers used one (there are very few and only 50 originals made by Gittler himself) on "Dream of the Blue turtles" I believe.

Rob

that gittler sure is a weird lookin' thang.....
Aluminium due on thursday....I shall be attacking it soon, armed only with a bandsaw, a router and several home made jigs....will post progress photos.....

are you trying to "route" aluminium? i would very strongly suggest not doing this. routers are designed to cut wood by using a cutter that spins at aproximately 20,000 rpm. cutting aluminium on a mill is always under 2000 rpm, thats a 10fold difference. often its around the 500 rpm area, depending on the cutters diameter.
what grade of aluminium did you get? 6061?