Acoustic Guitar Construction

Why not bolt the neck on from the outside? Any drawbacks? Access would sure be easier, adjustments would be easier, and as long as you have enough surface area to drill the holes cleanly, it looks to me like it would be easy enough to do, especially if you are using an early Taylor bolt-on butt joint.

Tradition? No good reason -- matter of fact its a consideration I am making for the KMG archtop design. The builder just has to have a fool proof way to set the neck. I can visualize all sorts decorative way to conceal. Taylor has screw right through the fingerboard on the "Baby" models. I've seen adjustable schemes with bolts showing.

ken cierp wrote:a consideration I am making for the KMG archtop design

Did you people happen to see that little nugget of information????? YES!

The Harmony "Kitchen Kamikaze" luthiers do 1260 neck resets with a screw through the heel into the neck block, followed up with perhaps a plug on top and even a finish touch up. It works well.

And yes Dave, I noticed. One way to deal with the aesthetics would be to use a large enough bolt that a small female thread could be machined into the top. A decorative cap with a corresponding male shaft would then serve as the removable cover. The cover would need to be round and protrude for this to work. Alternatively, a decorative piece of metal, shell, wood, horn, ivory, whatever, could be inlaid over the bolt and fastened with a screw with a recessed head that attached to the bolt in a similar fashion - something like a truss rod cover. Or, rejecting these solutions might inspire something better.

KMG archtop design. I want one NOW. :-)

I think the aesthetics of the front hole could certainly be worked out. I'm pretty sure that some folks would not mind seeing the screw heads anyway.

Dave you should know that my lead design idea/concept includes a single pick up -- then a conventional bolt on neck is a complete no brainer.

Sure.