[Adam]

Thanks for this! I worked with FRPs, carbon fiber, etc. for years as a shipwright and never came across colored product like the Hypetex you mentioned. Very cool!

Hypetex makes flax-based and carbon fiber products in various colors and weights. As long as you avoid their unidirectional product, I bet the lower price/weight (gsm) products would suffice… Their minimum order quantity is 5 square meters, so this would be more for a regular production shop than for a garage workshop like my own, but!!! They make CUSTOM COLORS. Mind blown.

I didn’t see technical guidelines for the flax products, but the carbon fiber fabrics are compatible with any epoxy-based resin. For a luthier’s neck-strengthening purposes, a lightly clamped wet layup should work fine if you want to avoid vacuum infusion. Just cut the fabric down to a bit oversize to limit dust from final shaping, and don’t over-flood the fabric with resin.

PS Has anyone tried or come across G10 fiberglass used to stiffen a composite neck? Or perhaps between a neck and fretboard?

The dust is just as unfriendly to lungs as carbon fiber, but it has similar material benefits at a significantly lower price. It’s not as strong as carbon fiber, but it’s significantly less brittle, way easier to machine, and only about 15-20% heavier (a 1/16″ sheet the size of a fretboard would weigh just over 2oz.). It’s 3-4x stronger than ebony or rosewood, AND you can buy it ready to go instead of buying expensive epoxy and doing a wet layup or vacuum infusing it.

A square foot of 1/16″ would run $20/25, maybe less. A very attractive number (and workload) for anyone who’s spent over $100 for a quart of West System with hardener… Of course, you’d want to use epoxy for the G10 glue-up, but you’d need a lot less than you’d use to wet out carbon fiber cloth.

[Adam]

I’m curious to know if you brought this one to life!

Also, what materials did you consider/use? I imagine its diminutive size and expected ~6 pound finished weight indicate some extremely dense hardwood and/or the “Comfort Rod” using some extra hardware? You have some really intriguing design elements going on, from the unique dimensions to those cool fanned tier features and gorgeous headstock…

What did your final version look like? Was the 1.6″ neck playable with bass strings!? (Wait a sec, you also wrote 0.65″, which I’d assume makes it an ornament—what were some of the final dimensions?) How does the Comfort Rod work? What lessons did you gain from the process?

I know you were hunting for strength and playability analysis, so sorry for all the questions. I’m just so curious! Good on you for exploring the edges of the envelope.