bass neck with knee

[willie craig]

please detail for me the description of a bass neck with knee.i know what the neck is, however; i am uncertain what the knee represent...

i would like to have a full and through picture of what
i am buying before buying from Gloger.

any help will be appreciated

[SOTSDO]

A "knee" in this context refers to a brace between the two, right angle joined with a bend, section of the neck. It's usually seen in metal working as a diagonal brace making a hypotenuse to the other two.

More properly, it should be called a "knee brace". The term originated, as far as I have seen, with the use of similarly shaped timbers (cut from massive tree branches at the join into the tree's trunk) used to brace deck beams on ships. The knee itself was the angled piece of timber (resembling a bent knee with attached calf and thigh), and the knee brace was a strap or crutch piece spanning the partially closed angle of the knee that gave the member added strength and stability.

The advantages of this arrangement are that the knee brace resists both pulling (when disassembling and assembling) and pushing (when adjusting the mouthpiece on the horn) on the long leg of the neck. Use too much force and you deform or break the relatively soft brass and the various solder joints in the neck -- not a good thing by any stretch of the imagination.