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I am building #9 right now - a maple Martin 00 with a redwood top and a Stauffer neck and head.

I have been really lucky with neck angles so far with only 1 needing a wedge under the fretboard extension - and that was a resonator.

I have included some pictures of the method I have derived from others' methods, one that I am comfortable with that seems to work pretty well. Not all the neck angles come out at 1-1/2°, but not too far off. How do you all tackle this most essential of steps? What do I have wrong or right? Thanks in advance

1) I use a 28' radius on tops, and I use a radius beam, not a dish. So I work the top edge down with the beam before the lining is installed.

2) I draw a line 1/8" down from the edge of the rim at the neck block, then taper it to "0" at the waist

3) I use a plane to take down the neck block and the sides to near the line

4) Being careful and doing a lot of sighting across the rim and using straight edges, I use the flat side of the radius beam to bring the upper bout rim all into the same plane

The next step is to install the lining and use the 28" and the flat radius beams to bring the top edge of the lining down flush with the rim. At that point I will use a long bevel gauge to be sure my neck angle is in the right range. Thanks

I do my tops-to-rim in a similar fashion. Works well for me also

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

Ed

I don't see anything wrong, pretty close to what I do. Here's what I do on my steel string guits:

sand neck block and rim in a 30 ft dish

with a 1/8" shim across the lower bout, sand the rim and neck block flat to the waist.

This gets 1 1/4 deg past perpendicular between the neck contact area of the rim and the FB surface on the top.

Top bracing is flat from the top of the upper bout to the soundhole.

The cheeks of the neck (actually one since it's a butt joint) are 1 1/2 deg shy of perpendicular.

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Pat and Joe

Thanks for the comments - I am happy to know I am not too far off the right path.

Peace to everyone tonight.

Ed

Looks fine to me, Ed, and since it's been working for you so far, I'd say you're definitely onto something.

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George :-)