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I've got my neck blank glued up, trued up, and marked up. At this point,
Cumpiano would have me cut the neck tennon, and unless I have glossed
over and missed something (possible), it seems he would have me cut the
tennon cheeks square with the top of the neck shaft (where the
fingerboard will glue on). What strikes me is that this neck is almost
certainly going to be set at an angle, albeit a small one.

Should I, in anticipation of that angle which I cannot yet measure, cut the
cheeks at about 89 degrees? Or should I go ahead and cut them square
and plan on using a chisel or a shoulder plane to fit the joint more closely
and create that angle later?

Let me know if I'm not being entirely clear on what I'm asking.

Thanks!

Jay

Depending on how arched is your top the deviation from 90? is minimal
and can be worked with sandpaper between the shoulders of the box and
the neck's cheeks, you should check out Frank Ford's excellent neck reset
procedure, the same technique can be used to "set" a neck. What
attachment/joint are you using?
Frank Ford's neck reset technique

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

Jay,
Any relation to Bobby Eckles of New Jersey?

_________________
Dave Bland

remember...

"If it doesn't play in tune...it's just pretty wood"

[QUOTE=Dave-SKG] Jay,
Any relation to Bobby Eckles of New Jersey?[/QUOTE]

No known relation, I'm afraid. Though my wife and I did live just
outside Philadelphia for about 3.5 years. Never ran into anyone with the
same last name (spelling, anyway) while we were there, and rarely do here
in Memphis. Well, except when we go to mom and dad's house ;-).

And to the question about what type of joint, it's a plain old mortise and
tennon with two bolts going through the headblock and into threaded
brass inserts in the tennon. It's conceivable I might use barrel nuts
instead of the brass inserts. It will depend on whether my tennon is too
short due to a slight measuring error I've otherwise recovered from. The
tennon is going to end up 3/4" long instead of the 15/16" originally
planned. I didn't take into account losing a little when planing the scarf
joint, nor did I take into account losing a little when flattening the part of
the heel that becomes the end of the tennon. 1/16" here, 1/16" there,
you get the idea.

Jay

neck resetting and neck building are two very differnt operations. when neck resetting most of the wood is usually removed with a chisel, with the sandpaper flossing used to get a good fit of the cheeks against the sides.

the angle will usually end up around 88.5 degress, give or take a bit, and sanding off 1.5 degrees is not fun. some builders use an even steeper angle. if you build one of the router jigs for which lance is hopefully soon going to have plans available you will make your job much easier.

In Tradition and Technology, Compiano does indeed have you cut you tenon square to the FB plane and hand fit the neck to the guitar. If you have not built many guitars yet I believe this is best policy as many things help determine the proper neck set angle. A 90 deg angle will require that the heal cheeks be worked to bring the neck and FB into the proper relationship to the bridge both in height and alignment. If you cut the angle wrong you would be forced to build up these areas with some sort of material, then hand fit anyway. If on the other hand you have all of your procedures down to the point that you know that you bridge height, top dome shapes and mortise alignment are true and repeating then I would look into a jig Like Paul's. to pre cut the neck angle.