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neck angle no neck angle

I want to build a 3 stringer and have some neck confusion. The first neck I built had a 10 degrees angle but you can not really lay the thing down without the neck getting all the force on it in the wrong direction. So the next one I built had a straight neck with a thick fret board which with the nut gave it some angle down to the strings as well I put the tuners into a slot in the neck so they were half way down into the neck giving more angle.

I now want to build a fretless which will reduce the angle down to the tuners. I know some things like a strat have some special holdown since the angle down to the tuners is not steep enough.

Any ideas of how much angle is needed to hold the strings down tigh on the nut. Also I have the tuners in the middle of the neck so the 2 outside strings move into the middle of the neck, and I am using metal strings, if this has relavence. I am thinking , well enough angle to hold the strings tight onto the nut, but how do I figure out how much is enough.

I wanted to ask this as I did not want to build it and find out it sucks and have to build another neck or figure out some sort of hindsight fix. Cheers Ron.

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Permalink Reply by Roger Morin on April 30, 2010 at 4:33am

Have you ever seen Shanes old Mac that he has been playing for the last 13 years. If not go to his page click on so you can see all his picture look at page three and you will see a picture of his headstock which might be helpful to you. Many others have taken this simple design and improved upon it to what they wanted.

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Permalink Reply by MichaelS Country Boy Guitars on April 30, 2010 at 5:22am

I use an angled back headstock and its 12 degrees back from the neck. It works well for me. Mine are all fretless also. Check out my page for pics if it helps any. I lay mine down all the time, even dropped a few times and the neck has not broken yet, I don't think there is enough weight in a cigar box guitar to stress out the head any.

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Permalink Reply by Mungo Park on April 30, 2010 at 9:14am

I think this photo shows it the best:
http://www.cigarboxnation.com/photo/sn852070-1?context=user
The neck does not seen to have a steep angle but it does have these screws in it which I think is to hold the strings down tight against the nut.
thanks for the help, Ron.

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Permalink Reply by Christopher on April 30, 2010 at 10:51am

Why not angle the headstock? I actually start with a 2X2 and cut the headstock and Neck out of a single piece. Works good for me. The 2x2 allows me to give the headstock a "just right" angle. Not sure how many degrees... works good though.

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Permalink Reply by MichaelS Country Boy Guitars on April 30, 2010 at 11:22am

Thats what I have been doing also, makes a nice neck and has some heel built in too.

Christopher said:

Why not angle the headstock? I actually start with a 2X2 and cut the headstock and Neck out of a single piece. Works good for me. The 2x2 allows me to give the headstock a "just right" angle. Not sure how many degrees... works good though.

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Permalink Reply by Outhouse Instruments on April 30, 2010 at 2:19pm

One word.

Scarf joint.

Ok ... so I can't count.

Two words.

Search.

Ok .. so i still can't count!

Matt

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Permalink Reply by Mungo Park on April 30, 2010 at 4:25pm

This is how I made the first one, but I wanted to make a straight neck this time, with no fret board. This photo is not the finished CBG the fret board has not been added in this one. Maybe a slight angle is what I am wanting. The one in the photo is 12 degrees, i could split the difference. Cheers Ron,

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Permalink Reply by Tracy Kennedy on April 30, 2010 at 7:43pm

These are the first two I built. Both striaght, no neck angle. Picture are fuzzy cause quite frankly, my camera sucks But either way you get the idea

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Permalink Reply by stan bryars on April 30, 2010 at 8:15pm

I never use a scarf joint or angle the neck anymore
Too much work and i try to stick to simple hand tools

I make a neck similar to the one that Mungo linked you to except I add wood to the bottom

If I need more of an angle I cut the slot deeper and add thicker wood to the bottom

I like simple designs though

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Permalink Reply by Outhouse Instruments on April 30, 2010 at 11:52pm

You could just cut about an 1/8" er off of the the top of your head stock and then just use Ukulele tuners. They are shorter than guitar tuners .... like 5/8ths er so.

Matt