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Permalink Reply by crissy b on March 8, 2011 at 6:50am

Hi if you put string retainers behind the nuitl do the job

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Permalink Reply by Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates on March 8, 2011 at 11:46am

See Jef Long's photo in this thread. they are neck thru design.

 

-WY

 

Scotty C. said:

Wes, your plans have helped me out more often than you know, but these days I want to start using taller bridges than i have previously -- like, around 0.65" tall. Doing a through-box with no neck angle is going to result in too-high string height, especially as you move down the fretboard. Ya know?

I very much appreciate the advice, though.

Wes "Moanin' Mule" Yates said:

Dude
Can't be simpler. Want a better image or the SketchUp file, I can have that for you.

-WY

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Permalink Reply by Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates on March 8, 2011 at 11:49am

There you go. I do a little different, but the result is exactly the same. And you did yours with a coping saw. WOW. that is not easy.

 

Scotty, take a real good look at his photos.

 

-WY

 

Mark Bliss said:

Scotty,

For an idea on angling the neck a bit, as well as a scarf joint free angled headstock, study this neck I built.

The design could easily be modified for a hard fingerboard laminated to the top as I plan in one of my next builds, but I wanted to present a simple method for those with limited tools and experience.

In the 7th picture you can see where I am cutting the back side of the neck in the box relief area at a slight angle, the front matches to create a 2 degree neg neck set angle.

With the finger board surface about 1/4" above the box where it meets the box, this one will require about a .6" tall bridge. Plenty of flexibility in the design for changing it to suit your needs.

Good luck on your efforts!

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Permalink Reply by Mister Scott on March 9, 2011 at 5:55am

swampapple slim said:

i think your thinkin too hard. only gibson does it to get over raised pups

Well, that may be true. I kind of like the Gretsch tune-o-matic bridges, and I was hoping one day to make use of one...

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Permalink Reply by The Phrygian Kid on March 10, 2011 at 1:55am

gibson do not do it to get over raised pups , gibson raise pups so theyre close enough to the strings ! A neck angle is a lot more work than routing the pup slot a 1/4 inch deeper, especially when you're getting the router out regardless

 

gibson do a big tall bridge on their electric guitars because they came into the electric guitar business from a background of building 'real' archtop jazz guitars, as opposed to Leo Fender who came into the business from a background of steels and amps.

 

witness the budget pauls - juniors and specials have a lesser neck angle and the dog ear pups.  This is a much easier way to build an axe, obviously.  Is a neck angle worth the extra effort? is a taper worth the effort? these are the questions, there is no doubt whatsoever it gives you a more comfortable to hold, nicer to look at axe.

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Permalink Reply by Don Goguen on March 10, 2011 at 3:45am

The approach I take is to do my work on paper first.  Pocket or through neck, this can be done with a simple drawing on paper with a rule and protractor.  From there it becomes visual as to what a particular angle is going to net you on the instrument.  Then you only need to measure the difference from both ends.  It does however require that you be able to cut tapers when doing through necks in a box design.

For pockets I use routing templates and just shim and clamp it at the calculated angle.  This is all figured out with a long stick, protractor and rule.  Once set up, it is just a matter of routing it out. 

Just make sure you take into account the total height of the strings, fret board and neck along with the height of the bridge and such.  This can all be laid out on paper though I like to do it in CAD.

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Permalink Reply by Mister Scott on April 2, 2011 at 3:58pm

Hey everyone.

 

I have a hard time visualizing verbal building plans, so i went ahead and made a rough drawing of what (i think) a few of us have discussed, in terms of a neck-through design that angles the neck:

Feel free to comment if you were imagining a different way.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Bliss on April 2, 2011 at 4:04pm

Close Scotty, but thats going to end up too thin at the tail end without some additional material.

You could add additional material in the box area as one solution.

Heres some shots of another solution. Its not clear, but if you cant see it you can probably imagine what it works like.

At 2 degrees of neck set, and with the fingerboard at about 1/4" above the box, the bridge is going to end up at about 9/16  to 5/8" high or so with what I would consider a "medium" action suitable for combination fretting and slide play.

 

(If anyone is interested, the highlights of this build are covered here)

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Rand Moore on April 3, 2011 at 5:51pm

Hi ScottyC.

I haven't built any six stringers, but for a 3 or 4 stringer, I think your neck design with the tapering tail end should work just fine, especially if you are using a fairly hard wood. My thinking is that you will be splitting the load between two points on your box when you bolt the neck on. I assume you will be bolting the neck to one end of the box at the heel, and then the tail end of the neck to the tail side of the box. Since the heel side is already bearing a lot of the load, the tail side doesn't really have to be all that beefy. But then, for a 6 stringer, the loads maybe much bigger. I also like the elegant lines of your neck drawing. Too bad they'll be hidden inside the box.

 

My builds use a bit of scrap wood that I glue onto the tail end of the box a little bit elevated to make the neck tilt downward a bit, and then with a size M8 machine bolt and nut for the bridge I can get real low action. The problem I had with one of my builds is the stress on the bridge piece made the 2mm veneer top bend inward and I lost the capability of using by 10th and 11th frets (diatonic scale). To fix that, I glued on a 3 inch x 3/4 inch by 2mm piece of veneer under where the bridge sits and so far it has solved the problem. On all my new builds I now add this piece on the soundboard underneath the bridge to strength it as standard.

 

-Rand.

 

 

 

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