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hello, iv been working on my first build and was wondering how i could determine the depth of a bolt on neck? i need to route it out and dont know how to determine the depth of the pocket

depends on your bridge. Put the bridge on and set the saddles as low as they can go, measure that height. The top of your frets should be at that height give or take as little as you can get it. This is neck angle dependent, your first fret down the fret board should all make a straight line to the saddles at their lowest point. Once a little bow is in the neck the strings will come up off the frets and you can adjust the bridge from there. If you screw up the lowest point then you might not be able to get your action as low as you would like. If you have ever had a bolt on guitar that needed a little shim to give it a small neck angle in order to get the action low, then the pocket was cut too deep.

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John Thiessen
http://www.iszacguitars.com

well, excuse my idiocy but are you talking about a neck joint angle like LP's have? i was goin for a fender neck joint

hey, if you draw the whole thing out on a piece of heavy paper,
the body, the bridge,
the neck with the fretboard,
and your srings,
it will become evident.
if you need to, you can shim the neck if it's off,
but if you get it all layed out properly,
you won't have to.
just adjust the bridge and the nut.
get your bridge, and measure the highest and lowest adjustments,
and go in the middle of that for starters.
did that help?

I was saying that the whole set up is neck angle dependent. I.E. you just can't set the top of the 22nd or 24th fret with the lowest adjustment height of the bridge if you have a 4 degree neck angle. What ever your angle is (none I presume for Fender style). When your bridge is at its lowest point, and a straight neck (no relief yet) the strings should be resting on all of the frets. Putting a little relief in the neck will raise the strings, and then you can adjust up at the bridge to set the string height you want.

I suggest you consider buying a copy of Martin Koch's "Building Electric Guitars" It lays this out very well in the design chapter. As with a lot of other things. You can buy the e-book version in PDF format and have it right away, or get the paperback off amazon or his website. the e-book can be purchased here.
http://www.buildyourguitar.com/books/ebooks/index.htm

_________________
John Thiessen
http://www.iszacguitars.com