Torzal SustainCore Hybrid Neck

[Matteo Marziali]

Torzal Guitars — SustainCore Hybrid Neck Instruments

Showcasing the instruments utilizing the incredible SustainCore Hybrid Neck design

www.torzalguitars.com

"A torrefied Sugar Pine softwood core wrapped with a continuous C-shape of carbon fiber with a curly Maple outside skin"

What do you thik about this?

 

[tubedude]

Veneer looks too thin for a fingerboard. And a little radius would be nice.

 

[Gopherbassist]

Sounds expensive, but Torzals ain't cheap in the first place.

 

[tubedude]

I guess the necks aren't strong enough to have straight string through the nut to locations near the edge of the neck.

 

[Dirk Diggler]

Looks like what Kubicki used to laminate their necks.

 

[T_Bone_TL]

There's either no point in the maple on the flat side (because an actual fingerboard would need to go there) or it's too thin as already mentioned. Ah, this is "weird long-head tune at tail central string anchor headstock" so the fingerboard is out of sight in your picture. Not exactly headless but the the tuners need to be that type. Can't say I love the design, aesthetically.

Structure-wise, it should be fine if properly engineered - CF skin over a lightweight core. Doesn't matter much if it's "torrefied sugar pine" or balsa or popple or foam. If the CF is built right it also doesn't matter (much) if the core is removed entirely after forming the CF.

 

[Beej]

The cf-wrapped and veneered neck is a Ken Parker innovation, except he used straight grained Douglas Fir for its naturally stiffer properties.

 

[dlmarquez]

looks really interesting to me. The bridge system from Riviera in Italy is quite different than any other headless bridge/tuner system I have seen

 

[Matteo Marziali]

Riviera drastically change the rules in headless bridge game!

And I think tight grain quatersaw pine could be strong enough by itself as neck, I presume cf anche maple veneer are more to protect the neck from dents than for stability. It can't be compared with balsa.

After discovered Ken Parker guitars I also thinked a lot about buildind a bass neck with spruce, italian red spruce from Alps ("Abete di risonanza") but I'm not able to create a neck pocket that fit this kind of neck...

 

[dlmarquez]

You cant actually see it in the pics, but apparently there IS an adjustable truss rod in the neck, as well as threaded inserts in the heel for solid body attachment.
It looks like a very interesting system, but I would prefer if the strings were 2x2 to shorten that elongated headstock down

 

[Bonkersville]

Torzal isn't the only one to utilize the Late Great Ken Parkers ideas in their guitars. And the more the better I say. He chose to share them with everyone. I also believe an engineered neck can be a lot better option if done properly. And I also think there's a lot of innovation yet to be made on the suspect.

The only potential issue with the Torzal design I can think of is that wood moves with humidity changes. Carbon does not. This might bow the neck up or down during seasonal changes. Which doesn't have to cause anything other than maybe some trussrod adjustments. This depends a lot on the fretboard wood.

To me the headstock design is cool because it's different. And if there's no tuning problems then great. It won't hang that well on a wall but that might not be an issue for everyone.

Canna Guitars does a similar shaft construction, but he uses a cnc based process that is a bit wasteful. However I believe his technique results in a very strong and stable neck. He also inserts carbon in the fretboard which results in a more symmetrical structure. You can check that out in this video:


I might not agree on everything he explains there but the structure is solid. And he builds amazing, beautiful and innovative instruments.

 

[Matteo Marziali]

The guitars made by this guy are very interesting! Also te use of "Hempstone"