Volute?

[hairpuller]

My 000 has one, but I was curious if any of y’all know if it’s there for structural support, aesthetics, or both? I love the look, but can get in the way when I need to barre an F chord.

Thanks in advance!

scott

[tadol]

Long, long ago – the volute was part of a joint called a birdsmouth scarf joint, that was used to join the headstock paddle to the neck. It allowed the long grain of the headstock to be parallel to the faces (strongest) and created a strong mechanical interlock between the paddle and the neck. The volute was both decorative, and helped reinforce that joint. It’s become most common to saw the headstock and neck out of a single billet of wood, so the volute is mostly a vestigial remnant, but for traditional looks, many models include some form of the design – I’ll try to find a pic somewhere –

Edit – here its called a birds beak – John Greven does a great job of showing what this joint really is, although he uses a lot of jigs and power tools –

http://www.grevenguitars.com/tablet/birds-beak-demo.html

• This reply was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by tadol.

[Matt Hayden]

Here is a link to the volute joint from frets.com.

Frank Ford says Julius Borges identifies this as a modified bridle joint.

 

• This reply was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by Matt Hayden.

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