Official Luthiers Forum!

1. How thick is your bridge?

2. Do you have any back neck set angle?

My guitars have no radius on the top, but to accomadate my 9mm thick bridge, I was taught (by Sergei de Jonge) to leave a couple of degrees back neck set angle. This means that the fretboard tongue is elevated above the top at the end. It is then clamped down when the neck is glued on. I have had no real problems with this, but it has been brought to my attention that this may not be the norm (but neither is my bridge). The problem is that if I did not have a back set angle on the neck, the action would be way too high on the strings. Your thoughts?

_________________
ELEVATE || Next Level Lutherie
http://elevatelutherie.com
&
http://ensorguitars.com

How thick is your fretboard?

_________________
Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

I shim the extension.

_________________
Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

My bridge is around 3/8" thick. I pretty much complete the body - binding and all - and then sand the FB extension area flat. At this time I transfer the angle between the top and the side where the neck heel will meet to the neck heel by using a sliding bevel gauge. I then sand the neck heel to exactly the same angle on my belt sander using a jig that holds the neck at the proper angle. The whole process takes a couple of minutes. If I've done everything right, the FB extension is straight and everything lines up.

Chuck

_________________
"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong"
- Joseph Chilton Pearce

Laurent, My fingerboard are about 1/4" at center (6ish mm). Sorry I learned in Canada and have converted some things to standard units, so I think in both mm and inches.

Howard, can you post a picture and explain in a little better detail what you mean.

So far, I set the neck angle similarly to how Chuck describes- i.e. with a jig on the belt sander. It gets the neck angle correct, but leaves the fingerboard floating. It then has to be pressed down, causing there to be a bump at the joint to the body....

_________________
ELEVATE || Next Level Lutherie
http://elevatelutherie.com
&
http://ensorguitars.com

Bump

_________________
ELEVATE || Next Level Lutherie
http://elevatelutherie.com
&
http://ensorguitars.com

I typically put a 1.5 degree back angle on my necks, which just makes it a bit easier to hold. You can always adjust your neck angle to your bridge so that you can use the 9mm stock, but it would be far easier to make the bridge to accomodate the neck angle you like. I would set your neck angle somewhere between 1-2 degrees, and see where your bridge lands with a long straight edge. If you have a completely flat top, or a really thick fretboard, 2 degrees might be too tall, so make sure you line it all up and look before you glue anything. Then after you are satisfied with the neck angle, make your bridge to fit under the imaginary line that follows the frets over the soundboard. (The line that a straight edge sits on) That way you have some room to have some saddle height, and a good break angle so you get the torque on the soundboard you are looking for too.

_________________
http://www.sixgunguitars.com

So Brian,
Since you use a back angle of a couple degrees, when you put the neck on the body- before gluing it down, does your fingerboard tongue touch the top, or is it floating (at the end)?

_________________
ELEVATE || Next Level Lutherie
http://elevatelutherie.com
&
http://ensorguitars.com

Chris, I build with an induced arched top (not a carved top), so in essence from head to tail my top is flat, like yours. My neck is at a straight 90º angle, fretboard centre is .275" thick and bridge centre is .325" thick. No fussing with any angle there, nor is there a need to.
Of course my tops are extremely stiff so they virtually do not rise under tension. With a true flat top it is perhaps one more consideration to take into account.

_________________
Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/