Contoured Neck Heel And Micro Tilt

[Bukoffsky]

Contoured neck heel as on Music Man Silhouette, sans the plate (and the fifth bolt).

Micro tilt as in fender micro tilt, four bolts version.

I'm thinking about issues that could arise with combination of the two.

Will the non perpendicular placement of the two front bolts completely mess up the fretboard - strings geometry?

Any thoughts?

[Bukoffsky]

, no one?

[Shaikoski]

sorry man, those are the two companies that I really have no wish to model after. maybe if you explain it to me more what those are (I neglect the idea of bolt on necks because I don't like them) I could give it some thought.

[Tim37]

from what im understanding your worried about the piviot point on the micro tilt causing the neck to tilt at a angle rather than straight back. to be honest i havent ever seen a contoured heal with a micro tilt so i dont know what would happen i would think yoiu would be ok since your not tilting the neck back but a fraction of a degree but i could be wrong.

[pan_kara]

From a guitarbuilding newbie:

I think simple geometry will tell us that there will indeed be a twist in the neck plane introduced as you "tilt" it - if you treat the 2 front screws as forming a pivot on which the neck rotates. If this pivot line is not perpendicular to the neck centerline you will by construction be putting in a twist when tilting the neck downwards. In fact your centerline will also loose alignment. The question is whether

a) these movements will be big enough to matter (depends on how much you want to tilt the neck I guess) and

whether this can be avoided.

To avoid this you'd have to somehow force the neck to rotate around a different axis than the one formed by the two bolts. I don't think I see a way of doing this that is practical. You can add a fifth bolt mirroring the position of the one that is moved back to form the contoured heel but I imagine you'd get into all sorts of trouble whith having to adjust the tension on all bolts to keep the neck geometry the way you want it. So in the end I dont think this idea is practical, unless the tilt adjustments are meant to be really small.

[Bukoffsky]

yes, i guess the only way to find out is to try it out.

However, microtilt is actually nothing but a fancy way of shimming. I guess someone had to try this at some point in history.

[brian d]

Hey Bukoffsky,

There was an adjustable neck joint on MIMF a while ago by Kif Wood. I can't find it in the library, but here is a quick sketch of my solid body version of it.

The fulcrum is perpendicular to the midline, so the neck stays in line as you adjust whatever the shape of the heel behind the fulcrum.

You adjust from the 2 heel end screws pulling the neck down, and the screw pushing up to get the desired angle. The last screw locks the end of the neck down into the desired position. Note that all the screws engage in metal inserts.

It looks a bit strange with the adjusting screws only on one side, but because the neck rests on the fulcrum, there is no side-to-side tilt, and extra screws aren't necessary - the string pull is actually pulling the heel down at the end of the pocket.

Hope this helps.

[Bukoffsky]

Thanks Brian, this helps a lot.

I guess you would say that non perpendicular axis would significantly alter the neck geometry.

I like the fulcrum ridge idea a lot. Seems logical.