Scarf joint
A joint in which the headstock is cut and glued to the neck at an angle rather than being carved from one piece of wood.
Because a headstock needs to be angled back to create break angle over the nut, makers either carve the whole neck from a thick blank and waste a lot of wood, or glue a separate angled piece on with a long overlapping scarf joint. The joint is stronger than the surrounding timber when it is properly made, and it allows thinner, cheaper blanks, which is why it is standard on many mass-produced instruments. A badly made scarf joint can show as a line across the back of the neck and can fail under impact.
Example: A guitar whose neck shows a diagonal glue line running across the back of the headstock has a scarf joint.
See also
Related
- PageHeadstock
- PageVolute
- PageHeadstock angle
- PageAction
- PageArchtop
- PageB-Bender
- PageAaron Dessner
- PageAce Frehley