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Has anyone made a Torzal tist-like neck?

MPU

MPU

Sep 21, 2004
3,703
10,692
56
Valkeala Finland
#1
Hi all,
I'm thinking about making a Torzal twist-like neck. Has anyone made one? I've been thinking to make a router jig for routing the fretboard surface. After sanding I'm going to laminate the fretboard from two or three pieces.
How do I dress the frets? Any opinions?
Marko
 
#6
Not that I've seen; I've been watching Jerome Little's work since the late 90's and I've never seen another one built. I searched long and hard a few years back so it's possible someone else has done it since, but AFAIK, Little's the man. I just made the link to Bas' site because his is the most beautiful I've seen...
 
#10
Hi.

I haven't made one, but with two steel rods/rails and two bearing carriages, making the jig -even an adjustable one- would be a breeze. I have several large INA linear carriages for prism rails, PM me if You're interested.

As mentioned earlier, there was a hobby plane enthusiast (glider IIRC) who documented such a build using a homemade CNC machine about a year back.

Edit:OOPS, make that two years, how the time flies when You're having fun... :(.
Here's the thread:
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f57/twisted-neck-composite-headless-433680/index7.html

Regards
Sam
 
#12
T-Bird said:
Hi.

I haven't made one, but with two steel rods/rails and two bearing carriages, making the jig -even an adjustable one- would be a breeze. I have several large INA linear carriages for prism rails, PM me if You're interested.

As mentioned earlier, there was a hobby plane enthusiast (glider IIRC) who documented such a build using a homemade CNC machine about a year back.

Edit:OOPS, make that two years, how the time flies when You're having fun... :(.
Here's the thread:
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f57/twisted-neck-composite-headless-433680/index7.html

Regards
Sam
Click to expand...
That was a crazy build and the one that I was thinking of earlier. I was on my phone so I couldn't track down the thread and post it, so thanks. I am constantly amazed at what the people in LC come up with.

lowsound
 
#13
Hi.

MPU said:
INA makes fine products. My father-in-law works at INA so I have quite a good supply of their products.

I hadn't thought of steel rails and bearings, thanks for the tip!
Marko
Click to expand...

You're welcome.

If You use tubular rails, plain bearings will do and it will also reduce the possibility of dragging. Plus You have one less degree of freedom to worry about.

iamlowsound said:
That was a crazy build and the one that I was thinking of earlier. I was on my phone so I couldn't track down the thread and post it, so thanks. I am constantly amazed at what the people in LC come up with.

lowsound
Click to expand...

You're welcome.
What ever happened to AndreasMergner anyway, he hasn't posted that much?

Even though it's most likely that the real world just has more appeal than this artificial one, it always makes me suspect the worst. I guess I'm pessimistic that way :(.

Regards
Sam
 
#15
After googleing I've found a pic of a kind of a jig for the neck routing at Invalid Link Removed
I have something similar in mind.
I've also found that fret leveling is done by wrapping sanding paper around a round steel bar and sanding along string path. Of course the less need there is to level the frets the better.
I'm hoping to get the jig done in a couple of weeks, next week I'm on a holiday and need to do some painting and wall paper work at home.
Marko
 
#16
My geometrical thinking does not solve one problem with the jig. Do I make the rails parallel or do I make them tapered along the outer edges of the neck? As I see I have to route along each string path to make the fretboard straight under each string, correct? If that's correct then I have to make my jig so that for each string path there is a slightly different taper in the jig. Or am I thinking too difficult?
Marko
 
#17
Hi.

Theoretically matching the taper of the neck would be ideal, but since we're talking about deviations less than the accuracy of the machining, I'd make 'em parallel for ease of construction.

The jig in the pic on Your link has several inadequacies from the engineering POW, over-engineered in some points, over-simplified in others, and way too rigid in terms of adjustability. The pic is very poor though, there may be something that doesn't quite show.

Regards
Sam
 
#18
I think you should make them parellel. The twist of the neck needs to be consistant to avoid an uneven surface for fretting. The strings are all on the same plane even though it is twisting.
Come to think of it. If you compound radiused the fretboard you should in theory be as good as a compound straight neck, except for when you bend a string. Then things will get different.
 
#19
I'm going with flat fretboard. I have one on my fiver at the moment and I like it a lot.
Parallel rails sure makes the sled for router a lot easier to make. I didn't quite understand how the jig on the link works. I'll try to draw some kind of a pic of my planned jig tonight.
Marko
 
#20
+1 on not understanding on how that jig works. But I'm also not seeing how you could do it with parallel rails either. Seems to me you would need a helix, offset to the helix that is the fretboard.

But there's bound to be some clever method with straight rails that just escapes me.
 

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