Neck Through Help

[wing]

Hey everybody, im building a neck through guitar with a tune o matic bridge. How do you work out the height the fretboard need to be above the body? It wont have a neck angle and id prefer the bridge not to be recessed.

Thanks for your help

[MzI]

im pretty sure when you build a guitar with a tom, you hafta have either an angle on the neck or recess the bridge

MzI

[Devon Headen]

No, you can just raise the fretboard. If there's no neck angle it seems like the easiest way would be get the height of your bridge. Since there is no angle, the nut and bridge are on the same plane relative to the body, right? You would then figure out what you wanted your action the be at the end of the neck (before addying fallaway if you plan to do so). Raise the fretboard high enough the get the action you want using your bridge height as the height of the strings. I'm not sure if this is too confusing, and I'm sort of making an educated guess. That's always the way I thought you'd do it. Somebody straighten me out if I'm worng.

[lucky1]

Edited September 19, 2004 by lucky1

[wing]

Thanks again for all your help, ive done some calculations and worked out the fretboard needs to be about 1cm higher than the body (I think). Isnt this a bit too much of a drop? I worked it out with the bridge at its lowest position but it still seems a bit high

[lucky1]

Edited September 19, 2004 by lucky1

[wing]

Lucky1, i meant no neck angle.

By the way, ive just had a brainwave. Im not sure if this will work but in theory it should, well anyway:

As a stratocaster has no neck angle, what if i take the amount the fretboard is raised above the body on that and then add on the difference between the height of a strat trem and a tune o matic to get the amount of raise for my fretboard?

[westhemann]

you would have to have a drop of about 5/8"

imo that would look ugly as sin,and would be about as functional as man nipples

there are other bridges which are much lower and require no neck angle...and if you can build the rest of a guitar,you can manage the neck angle required for a t.o.m.

or you could recess it...i have done that before and i like it,but be sure to use a t.o.m. with the screwdriver height adjustment instead of just the thumbwheel

[lucky1]

Edited September 19, 2004 by lucky1

[Southpa]

Can't use a TOM without neck angle and/or recessing the bridge. Sure, you "could" raise the fretboard to accomodate but your strings will be so high off the body of the guitar that it will look like a violin. ALSO, I'm not sure you can raise your pickups that high.

[wing]

Ok, i agree the large drop will look a bit strange, so ive decided to make a neck angle. I did a search on this forum and it seems the best way to do it is to glue the wings on at an angle and then shave the surface flat. Does anyone know how to work out the neck angle and the height the fretboard needs to be raise. (Im pretty sure there is a raise in the fretboard as my brothers sg has a neck angle and raise)

Cheers everyone

[Southpa]

Wing, what type/design of headstock are you planning to use? Angled headstock requires a scarf joint to be made in your neckwood piece. Here is what I would do...don't glue the wings on yet. Its MUCH easier to work a piece of wood without unwieldy "attachments". First, make sure your neck wood is square, that is top surface is perfect 90 deg. to sides. Figure out where the angle starts at the body and then DRAW your angle on both sides of the neck wood. The best way to remove the wood is to either bandsaw or use a large belt sander. This ensures that the top surface will remain perfectly flat and true with the sides.

Make sure you got it all worked out in your head and on paper before beginning. This includes placement of fretboard, nut, headstock type/design, break of angle at body, how many frets into the body and fretboard height. No rush here, man. You are shooting for about 3 degrees for your neck angle so make sure you have enough wood in your neckwood piece. That is, by the time you are finished cutting/sanding you will still have enough length and depth left over to make a headstock.

[wing]

ok cool, thanks for the tips southpa. I worked out the angle and it seems to be exactly 4 degrees and the fretboard is raised approximately 1.5mm above the body. I think that seems about right, had a check on an SG and i think the extra 1 degree in the angle is because im using 25.5" scale length rather than the Gibson one.

As for the headstock, i have to admit i havent designed what it looks like yet but i figured i could leave it "paddle" shaped and shape it when i think of something really nice.

Sorry for sounding dumb but whats a scarf joint?

[Southpa]

Wing, you have email.