Why doesn't Gibson make their necks better? A famous feature of Gibsons is when you point at the headstock, it breaks off of teh neck. You wouldn't wanna mess with tradition!!!???!!! I've had plenty of Gibsons and a sufficient percentage of them broke at the headstock so I do speak from experience

Heavy guitars are really STUPID......designed for Shoulder pain Clowns.....hahaha

Does the TTG Prostitute come with a Volute ? 🤔

Gibson & fender will NEVER get my buisness again so not my pro lem.

I keep telling everybody if you font want your neck to break change the strings of your guitar to lighter ones

Hey Matt, till I saw you sanding the neck I was under the impression your volutes were made from the sawdust you raised when you sanded up the neck. ; ) Thanks for the look at the Volute. Some are Cute.; ) I agree that volute added to Gibson would not make it stronger, but it might make the neck break in a different and more difficult to repair place on the headstock.

Appreciate you sharing your knowledge, mate. Considering the continued developments in steels, has Gibson reduced the diameter of their truss rod, to allow for less neck material removal? Or at the very least use a smaller diameter rod for their slim taper neck? 🤔 No judgement, just curiosity (ok, perhaps a little judging - a raised eyebrow perhaps). 🤨

The problem is simply two things; - too severe angle between the neck and headstock. It puts the end of the headstock past the plane of the back of the body. This means that it will touch the flat surface if the guitar is laid down. BUT - ** - mahogany necks. Maple is made up of much longer fibers with each fiber overlapping the others tying them together making their combined strength much greater. Mahogany wood fibers are much shorter meaning that there is much less overlap of the fibers making them much easier to separate from each other. ** Because of the wood missing at the most critical spot of the transition for the truss rod, this is a defect that is designed in. Add to that, since they are using mahogany, with its shorter fibers, if the angle is less, the very high string tension pulling on the headstock, TRYING to pull the headstock off the neck. the steeper angle actually helps counter the direction of that string pull. So the biggest factor creating the weakness is simply using a weaker wood in a place where its nature makes it not a great choice. Maple necks can break too. But nowhere near as often nor as easy as mahogany. For me, always maple (I also prefer the sound with the mahogany body) neck with more of a 'stinger' style strengthening akin to what Martin does.

A spoke wheel truss rod nut at the would fix it, but Gibson is stuck on tradition.

You could find a way to route out a groove from the headstock to the neck, lay in carbon fiber tows set in epoxy, then cover with a thin veneer. It would be waaaaay stiffer than the bare wood.

The volute or changing the angle of the headstock is not necessary if you simply treat your guitar like an instrument rather than like a broom and don't do stupid stuff like leaning the guitar precariously up against your amp like tons of people do.

Gibson used the valute for the Norlin era. ( you got there)

Come on Fender's neck break too!!!!!

Les Paul likes slabs too

People say Gibson could solve the problem with X&Y change. However, Gibson owners don’t want it and Gibson have no incentive to remove the inbuilt obsolescence. Is it a case of - If it isn’t broken (but probably will) then don’t fix it because they’ll just buy another?

Me personally do not like "relic" guitars. I don't see the point. What is the point exactly?

"Happy meal for you" .... cracks me up every time I hear it. Thanks for the informational video!

I notice the neck you are holding doesnt have the ridiculous Gibson neck angle. That has been an issue with Gibson since their conception.. Why when Paul in collaboration with Ted McCarty made the mcCarty's SC58, 594 and such they didnt put that very steep angle.. Trying to remember does Gibson use a 17 degree angle on the headstock or something like that?

Litterally had les pauls for decades - NEVER had neck snapping issues. Maybe people should just take better care of their instruments....

Balut is a boiled fetal duck egg. They don't taste bad.

I like the volute. None of my guitars have one, but I've played some that did, and I like it. It helps to keep the thumb in position.

Balutes are mostly formed duck embryos served while they are still in the shell. I grew up near a duck farm, and that was their specialty. I go back and forth with volutes. They are fun to carve by hand

Hey I like big volutes on a woman, they are more characterful, and your hand is harder to slip off them. The benefits are without question in certain situations.

The only guitar I have ever owned which had a headstock break was a Gibson copy Les Paul, which snapped exactly as you showed. I believe it was a heat fracture, and all my own fault. Stored with strings in tension in a room which could heat to 60C in summer. That's hot, I have almost had my own head snap off in that room. My early 60s Gretch copy, a Chet Atkins, Country Gentlemen, which was in the same room was fine, but as you say, it was a 3-piece construction, so is a flawed analogy. I loved the entire neck feel on that, volute and all.

I have a couple Gibsons with the volute. Back in the day, players wined about it. I love it. I also do my damnedest not to drop my guitars.Drop them, they may break. Not the guitars fault.

Volutes are cool I love the norlin era, the kalamazoo ones had the biggest volutes. They broke even with the volute, but I think that with the 3 piece maple neck and the volute thats a very strong neck... so you are right. I love the 70s gibson guitars, some of them are magical.

I built a couple of Les Paul on demand, basically pretty exact copies of recent Les Paul Standard 60s, except for the necks which are roasted maple with graphite reinforcements running all the way through the headstock and with a less pronounced headstock angle (10°, roughly like on the PRS), the graphite reinforcements obviously also have a 10° angle and they're hidden under the fretboard and under the headstock black overlay. That allows me to keep a 1 piece neck structure and the overall feel of a slim tapper neck, without necessitating a volute under the neck at the headstock angle. With an ebony fretboard the result is significantly "snappier" but also more sustain and more resonant. I don't build a lot of guitars, so I can choose woods carefully and don't need tons of material. I use the lightest mahogany and maple I'm provided with and I roast the woods I use for stability. I'd greatly prefer to build multi-ply necks for such projects (think 5-ply early 2000s Byrdland neck) because of the stability of these necks, but people don't like the look of it, so, I do what they want.

You should see the volute on the back of my Red Special headstock.

Gibson used to know, back in Norlin days. My ‘76 Gibson has a maple neck with both volute and scarf joint, and it would need a deliberate smashing to break it

Title: "Why Gibson Refuses To Use Them" 35 seconds in... "I have no idea why Gibson doesn't use them" Yeah, I'm good

"Powered by Evil"? No thanks.

Wrong. The purpose of a volute on any stringed instrument is for hand positioning relative to the fingerboard. How can a guitar maker guy not know that?…

I'd love to rep one of those shirts here in the UK 😁 great video!!

funny how epiphones are stronger than gibsons in that area. yes they haver a bigger angle than gibsons, but they also have a scarf joint. for half the money a more roadworthy guitar. seems like a good deal to me

I got a ‘72 Goldtop with a volute. I shipped it cross country many times with no issues. It works.

I wish my Gibson's had volutes; I really dig them. Built a few guitars with volutes on the necks! Outstanding explanation of volutes. Thanks Matt!!

Aloha Braddah! Hahaha, you mentioned the Philippines….Balut….it is an egg with a chick that is almost formed, a delicacy that is not for me. Mahalo nui for sharing your skills!

I’ve seen countless broken Gibson headstocks which had the volute. I’ve seen them professionally repaired only to break again in a different spot, next to the repair glue joint. Therefore, in my experience, while a volute definitely adds strength, it’s not enough to overcome the inherently weak section of the neck where the headstock angle begins.

Have you seen the volute on the les paul axcess? It goes all the way up to the D and G tuners. Would've been stronger to straighten the headstock angle since it has a locking nut and doesn't need the break angle.

I hate them, I have an Eclipse that has one....first off they don't do anything. And I have never broken a headstock in 40 years of playing, I knew people who did, and every one of them leaned their guitars against walls or amps and they all drank alcohol. One guy I played with had a USA made original BC Rich Stealth, fell on it drunk... ugh most of his guitars were all super high priced and most got ruined this way. I never saw a guitar that was well taken care of with a broken neck. All my guitars have their own hard shell case, and all stay in their cases until I use them, and then right back in their case.

Gibson's Norlin years laminated necks with volute were an attempted fix but they broke the same anyway. So much wood is removed at the neck and high headstock angle/short wood fibers, that it breaks anyway. The biggest problem is Gibson's 17deg headstock and truss nut pocket. Surprising is they know how, from their Epiphones, to fix the problem. Remember Epiphones are more often bought by teenagers who are more likely to break guitars than the 50-60yo Gibson buyer.

14:26 Yeah…..Gibson guys like their exploding headstocks.

As a metal fabricator, I feel the volute 100% increases strength there. Just like a gusset would on metal.

Somehow Epiphones don't have the same headstock breakage problem...hmmm

I don't like big volutes and I cannot lie!!! 🤣🎵🎵🎵🎶🎶

If you look at a cross section of a broken Gibson neck, You'll see that there is not very much wood there. the thin back with the truss rod slot leave very little to secure the headstock. I agree with Matt that you don't need a huge volute. I make mine just big enough to make the thickness around the truss rod slot at that weak point comparable to the rest of the neck. I also agree with Matt that decreasing the angle to a point at which you still get a sufficient break angle helps a lot. I accidentally pulled one of my guitars off of my kitchen table. It looked like a cartoon with it suspended in air as if the table had been pulled out from under it. I watched in horror, in what seemed like slow motion as it fell and smacked the hard tile floor. No damage. I think it was the combo of the more shallow angle and the volute that saved it. (and maybe some luck?)

Love the volute! Also love the Lemmy WWLD on the wall

Why do we even call it a volute? That's the word for a scroll in woodworking (like the top of a violin headstock).

doesn't it give the player extra material to squeeze against when fretting first fret chords like F?

A better video “ straplocks, and why idiots don’t use them”