neck tang

[Aping Leo]

Can one of you luthiers out there please explain to me what the term "tang" means when referring to the neck of a guitar. Am I correct in my thinking that it refers to the "center line" of the neck?

[charles Tauber]

Frets are more or less T-shaped in cross section. The vertical portion of the T shape is called the tang. No part of the neck is called the tang.

[PTC Bernie]

As Charles states, it's the vertical part of the fret's "T" cross section that fits into the slot on the fingerboard.

[fazool]

A "tang" is typically a protruding metal shape, like a barb, meant to secure something.

Its actualyl a bit funny because the fret's "tang" is the metal part that goes into the wood, but on that metal vertical part are little metal barbs called tangs.

So, I gues those are the tang's tangs.

I've never heard the barbs on frets called tangs. Maybe that nomenclature shows up somewhere, but I haven't seen it.

As far as the OP's question, I suppose it is possible that someone has confused the term "tenon" with "tang".

[PTC Bernie]

Originally Posted by fazool

Its actualyl a bit funny because the fret's "tang" is the metal part that goes into the wood, but on that metal vertical part are little metal barbs called tangs.

So, I gues those are the tang's tangs.

Yeah, I thought about those but didn't know how to bring it up without clouding the issue.

Nicely done.

[fazool]

On second thought it might a more common thing to call those little barbs the tang's tines.

Yeah...I think that's a better description.

[Aping Leo]

Thanks guys. It appears that the term was misused when I first heard it. My brother and I are doing our first build, (solid body electric with a thru-neck) and someone told us to make sure we routed a line in the neck "tang" prior to gluing the last layer of the top on for our wiring. No wonder it didn't make sense to us.