Hi folks,
I thought I'd share a few of my tricks and techniques which I employ on my builds to make them sound and play better. Obviously to some of the more experienced builders out there these may seem obvious, but that aside these are all things I wish I knew when I began making these.
1. The nut
The nut is an extremely important part of any guitar's construction, and has a huge impact on the intonation and the clarity of the tone. All of my guitars are fretted so I set up my builds to play with fingers rather than slides. Some of these steps are unnecessary if you intend to only play with a slide.
My tips for nuts would be:
2. The bridge
Much like the nut, the bridge is very important for both intonation and allowing the strings to ring out as they should.
I use a floating bridge for all of my builds, as they are super easy to set up and I like the way they look. There is good information on setting bridge intonation all over the internet so I won't go into that here. My tips for bridges:
3. Back angle
I started using a back angle on the neck on roughly my 12th build. The difference in playability compared to a straight neck is huge. It is actually quite easy to achieve and well worth a try.
As you can see, using a back angle on the neck allows for a much higher bridge, and the action stays nice and low all the way up the neck.
4. String gauge
Although it is standard CBG building practice to use strings 3,4 & 5 from a 6 string set, I have found better result using strings at equal tension, which is probably more important on instruments without truss rods to prevent the neck warping over time. I also find equal string tension easier to play.
Well, I hope this is of some help to those of us just starting out with this rewarding hobby. I suppose my best tip would be not to think too much about it, otherwise you'll end up like me :(
Cheers!
Richey
the anonymous pick
yup .. ps .. nice bridge on that build ;-)
Dec 18, 2014
Brown Water Jerry (Rice)
Thanks!
Dec 18, 2014
jabes
all good points and well explained- the how and why...thankyou..
Dec 18, 2014
Paul Barbieri
I'm half way through my 2nd build, and your tips will come in handy for sure !
Dec 18, 2014
JL
What's your preferred action height?
Dec 18, 2014
Richey Kay
Dec 18, 2014
Richey Kay
Damn autocorrect
Dec 18, 2014
Doug Krantz
Good post, I never thought of equal string tension before, thanks for the link to the calcuator also.
Dec 18, 2014
Fake8pe
Dec 18, 2014
Michael Fred Johnson
Good post Richey
Dec 21, 2014
Richey Kay
Dec 21, 2014
Uncle John
Richey, I wish I would have read this about 5 years ago. The main things I did not know were about angling the nut and saddle. Makes sense. Wayfinder, I am bookmarking the page.
Dec 25, 2014
Andy Jach
Dec 31, 2014
gary sheldon
Great article, Richie. As far as neck angle goes, I don't measure it. Too difficult. But I typically make the but end of the neck inside the box 7/ 32 to 1/4" lower than the neck at the front of the box. I am getting better at cutting the nut and nut slotsthanksto your help. Also I discovered by myself about having the top of the bridge pointed. I don't even have to file grooves, the string tension takes care of that automatically.
Jan 5, 2015
Corbin
This is some great info Richey...
Jan 5, 2015
Calim
thank you for sharing sir
Jan 7, 2015
gary sheldon
Yes, Richey.
That article should be required reading for CBG builders.
After I built about 8 gits, I discovered neck drop. I took them all apart and put some drop on all the necks.
On the subject of slotting the nut, your suggestion helped me a whole lot. I also agree that the string should not be buried in a huge, deep slot. I think that about half the string diameter should be above the top of the nut. When I am satisfied with the slots and need to lower the action, I pop the nut out and sand the bottom surface to get the string height I want. I have also been known to (carefully) shim up a nut with too low action.
Jan 25, 2015
14 buck bass (aka antonio)
kudos my man, thanks for the tips
Feb 10, 2015
Richey Kay
Thanks for the comments guys! Glad the article has been of some help.
Feb 21, 2015
Mad Mike's CBG's
Thanks bro all good tips...
Oct 8, 2015
Richey Kay
Oct 8, 2015
Marcelo Vid
LOL, If I end up like you this will be awesome, Very thanks for sharing this with us Richey!
Oct 13, 2015
Kalmario
love this article, so much good information. and so cool to see someone else who doesn't predominately use slide necks. neck angle should be 2-3 degrees otherwise the bridge gets too high. would you be offended if I did a part 2? mind you it could be weeks off.
Oct 13, 2015
Richey Kay
Nope, I wouldn't mind if you posted more tips - if anyone else has any, share away! These are all things I wish I knew when I first started making these...would have saved a lot of frustration ;-)
Oct 13, 2015
music2me
Russ
Oct 13, 2015
Del Puckett
good info mate !!! thank you
Oct 14, 2015
Primitive Acoustics
Oct 14, 2015
Chris Carlson
Oct 14, 2015
Dave Collins
Thanks Richey.
some very useful info here, Cheers m8 =o)
Oct 14, 2015
RTZGUITARS
good stuff man
Oct 14, 2015
Richey Kay
Glad to see you back Wayfinder!
Oct 14, 2015
Barry Simon
When you angle the neck back - and you want the fretboard to hang over onto the box itself - do you add a shim under that portion of the fretboard? How do you deal with this gap?
Oct 15, 2015
Richey Kay
Oct 15, 2015
Barry Simon
Richey - thanks for this great post. I never considered the angle neck until I read this. So last night was looking at my Taylor GS-Mini - and the neck on that guitar DOES angle back slightly and noticed that under the portion of the fret board that overlaps the body - they do use a very small - angled shim - maybe 1/16 inch to fill in that gap. But true - violins and other stringed instruments float that portion of the fret board.
Oct 15, 2015
Hard luck chuck
good stuff - I learned some of this the wrong way on my first couple builds. I'll definitely use the nut slot depth and string tension tips.
Oct 15, 2015
Jim Morris
Excellent info Richey. Even after 100+ builds I can find useful stuff from your posts. I'm gonna go back to your bridge making post to see what I can steal since yours are so very nice looking and sounding.
Oct 17, 2015
Richey Kay
No worries, happy to help!
Oct 18, 2015
Muddbone
Nov 4, 2015
Richey Kay
Nov 4, 2015
Rough Cut Guitars
After reading your post "4 Tips..." I knew what I had to do and...
It turned out AWESOME. Did a 2 degree angle and the volume and projection are ridiculous! I made my bridge a little different from yours but calculated the compensation and the intonation is dead-on. You can see the bridge at the link below. Life will not be the same; thanks! Owe you more than a few beers :-)
Tom roughcutguitars fb & yt
Feb 14, 2016
Philip Hale
Jun 16, 2016
Andy R
I have used it on my dulcimers and it fits the bill for quality nuts and saddles. Easy to file and sand as well.
Nov 23, 2016
Alberto Magotti
I Will use the back angle neck on my next build!
Apr 12, 2017
Solazule Lunanegro
Great stuff Richey, Thanks man! I'm all about nuts and saddles right now but the neck angle is something I will try too, same with the strings.
Jun 15, 2017
Geordie Hillbilly
Ace tips bonnie lad!
Oct 25, 2018