Two Piece necks on high end Martins

[LordRasor]

Has anybody seen two piece necks on higher end martins? (D-28 and higher). I watched the Martin factory tour video on YouTube and it looks like each neck is cut from a solid piece of wood. Do we know if this is still the way the necks are cut today? I would love to find out some someone who has direct and personal experience either repairing/selling/or working for Martin.

I recently ordered a brand new Reimagined D-28 and I will be receiving it this week. Someone said they thought it was a two piece neck from the picture.

[DenverSteve]

No. One-piece neck.

[LordRasor]

Originally Posted by DenverSteve

No. One-piece neck.

Thank you for your feedback Steve!

[Tico]

While a one-piece neck sounds and feels preferable to me, I thought an excellent glue joint is actually stronger than solid wood is.

IOW, if a two piece neck were to split it's less likely to split at the glue joint than at another place in one of the two solid-wood pieces.

Luthiers, please correct me if this is wrong.

[jklotz]

Originally Posted by Tico

While a one-piece neck sounds and feels preferable to me, I thought an excellent glue joint is actually stronger than solid wood is.

IOW, if a two piece neck were to split it's less likely to split at the glue joint than at another place in one of the two solid-wood pieces.

Luthiers, please correct me if this is wrong.

This is my understanding as well.

[IndyHD28]

Martin has used a longitudinal two piece neck on some of their custom Sinker builds (Gruhn for example) when 12/4 Sinker lumber was unavailable. To my knowledge (which admittedly is not comprehensive), this construction has not been used recently on “Genuine” (Honduran) mahogany necks. However, Martin has recently experienced shortages of 12/4 Honduran and substituted smaller blanks resulting in the infamous “wings” on either side of the headstock (not exhibited here).

I suppose all these multi-piece neck designs work but to me, they are inelegant substitutions for a carved from billet, one-piece neck. I don’t mind Martin selling them but I do feel strongly that Martin owes it to the end user to identify what they are selling. This also goes for wood type as their specs allow for “select hardwood” which could be almost anything.

And to the OP, I saw your other thread and thought the speculations about this guitar were overdone and inaccurate. If you blow up the headstock pic, you can see that it is a color streak not a seam. It completely fades away north of the point of the volute. There is zero chance this is a glued seam. The new third pic you’ve posted here of the neck seems to show straight grain with an interesting (and attractive to my eye) color variation. IMHO, this is a beauty and you can buy it with confidence. My first high end Martin was purchased in part for its wild grained Guatemalan backwood only to be told by the experts that it is flatsawn instead of quartersawn and therefore would crack in five years! Well, the guitar is only 3.5 yo now but no signs of cracking yet! And another thing in issues like this...surely Martin is aware of them. Would they use flatsawn backs and less than perfectly straight grained necks if they were going to fail and cause warranty claims? I would think not.

Enjoy your new guitar.

[perttime]

The only advantage of a one piece neck is that it is traditional, and therefore more pleasing in many eyes. A two, or three, or five, piece neck further reduces the likelihood of the neck EVER developing any stability problems.

[IndyHD28]

Originally Posted by perttime

The only advantage of a one piece neck is that it is traditional, and therefore more pleasing in many eyes. A two, or three, or five, piece neck further reduces the likelihood of the neck EVER developing any stability problems.

Agreed. To wit, every Taylor neck is three piece. For one thing it reduces cost by reducing waste, not a bad thing when using these exotic woods. But I will admit the one-piece is more pleasing to my eye and mind, especially on a $4000 guitar.

[JayBee1404]

If someone’s world is knocked off-axis by the thought of their new guitar having a two-piece neck, I’m guessing their head would spontaneously combust if the guitar had a five-piece neck, like my Lowdens’ necks!

No problems whatsoever with ‘sound and feel’ - I love them. They are very much more elegant than the Martin two-piece necks though...

The usual disclaimers apply......IMHO, YMMV etc.

6B53FA4B-15EA-49F8-9823-3A622E582514.jpg

61BB98D4-05EF-429E-821D-C4A5123CF8EB.jpg

[IndyHD28]

Originally Posted by JayBee1404

If someone’s world is knocked off-axis by the thought of their new guitar having a two-piece neck, I’m guessing their head would spontaneously combust if the guitar had a five-piece neck, like my Lowdens’ necks!
Attachment 21727

I’d be more worried about that strap button sunk right into a seam.

[JayBee1404]

Originally Posted by IndyHD28

I’d be more worried about that strap button sunk right into a seam.

It’s not ‘sunk right into a seam’ it’s to one side (photo angle gives a wrong impression) and it’s exactly where the builders said it should go. Put there seventeen years ago, never had a problem. No worries here.

[AndrewG]

It's a little ironic that we're singing the praises of one-piece necks and bemoaning multi-piece necks, when early Martins had an entirely separate headstock (the 'diamond' volute on the guitar shown being merely a cosmetic representation of the original joint).

[LordRasor]

Originally Posted by IndyHD28

Martin has used a longitudinal two piece neck on some of their custom Sinker builds (Gruhn for example) when 12/4 Sinker lumber was unavailable. To my knowledge (which admittedly is not comprehensive), this construction has not been used recently on “Genuine” (Honduran) mahogany necks. However, Martin has recently experienced shortages of 12/4 Honduran and substituted smaller blanks resulting in the infamous “wings” on either side of the headstock (not exhibited here).

I suppose all these multi-piece neck designs work but to me, they are inelegant substitutions for a carved from billet, one-piece neck. I don’t mind Martin selling them but I do feel strongly that Martin owes it to the end user to identify what they are selling. This also goes for wood type as their specs allow for “select hardwood” which could be almost anything.

And to the OP, I saw your other thread and thought the speculations about this guitar were overdone and inaccurate. If you blow up the headstock pic, you can see that it is a color streak not a seam. It completely fades away north of the point of the volute. There is zero chance this is a glued seam. The new third pic you’ve posted here of the neck seems to show straight grain with an interesting (and attractive to my eye) color variation. IMHO, this is a beauty and you can buy it with confidence. My first high end Martin was purchased in part for its wild grained Guatemalan backwood only to be told by the experts that it is flatsawn instead of quartersawn and therefore would crack in five years! Well, the guitar is only 3.5 yo now but no signs of cracking yet! And another thing in issues like this...surely Martin is aware of them. Would they use flatsawn backs and less than perfectly straight grained necks if they were going to fail and cause warranty claims? I would think not.

Enjoy your new guitar.

Thank you for your feedback. Yes, I had originally posted the question about what type of wood was used on the neck of this guitar (HOG or Spanish Cedar) and the entire thread blew up into people trying to tell me to send the guitar back because something bad will happen in 5 years due to the slight diagonal pattern of the wood grain.. etc.. meanwhile nobody even addressed the original question in the first place.

I agree with you, and I personally think there are a lot of “cork sniffers” here in the forum.

“A cork sniffer is one who'll buy a really expensive and well made guitar by an excellent maker, and then find fault with it. Criticize the thickness or the color of the binding on the neck, or the height of the frets, or the shape of the neck”

It’s almost impossible sometimes to post a simple question without people coming in and sabotaging the thread or criticizing anything/everything about someone’s guitar.

[zombywoof]

I used to own a pre-War X braced Regal jumbo 12 string. The neck was not only massive but made of three pieces. Regal was obviously going for stiffness and advertised the neck as "warp proof." It did work as advertised. While the neck joint was so loose it popped off with thumb pressure, the neck itself remained straight and exhibited no cupping.

[Mr Bojangles]

I bought a new D-35 a few years ago and it had a two-piece neck. I actually didn't notice it for a couple of years.