After-market volute?

[Dave Bagwill]

Kinda 1/2 serious here :-)
It's not difficult to find, for sale, bandsawn neck blanks - the basic profile, one piece blanks, mahogany and such, pretty cheap.
In an abundance of caution, is it possible to strengthen that neck with a glued-on or glued-in volute?

[John Parchem]

I am just speculating, but structurally one can glue on extra wood. I am not use how to hide the horizontal joints on the top and on the bottom of the volute, even if it was a diamond shape I think I would have a hard time making it look like it was not glued on. Another thought would be to put a veneer on the back of the head stock as well as the front.

I cut out one piece necks on the band saw as my normal neck and have as yet to have a structural issue.

[Dave Bagwill]

Yeah, I don't have a problem with one-piece necks either. I've heard that the scarf joint is stronger, but unless one is planning on dropping one's guitar onto concrete, I have not found any information that the one-piece has a history of failures.

Others may have something to say here...

[Tim Benware]

Mostly see the broken neck problem when the truss rod access is on the headstock rather than through the sound hole. The removal of wood makes an already potentially weak area weaker.

[Dave Bagwill]

Ah! the ones I personally have broken have all been by ramming into bridge abutments at high speed, but maybe I'm in the minority..

I did not know that about the truss rod access - good to know.

[Herman]

Les Pauls are prone to that. They have no volute and no scarf joint.
I broke mine while stagediving and the chicks didn´t catch me. Why?

Herman

[Dave Bagwill]

I dunno - maybe because the guys wanted you more??