RandomAccess Posted September 17, 2004 Report Share Posted September 17, 2004 (edited) Hello out there, I was wondering if anyone could tell me why the neck of a neck-thru guitar needs to be angled back. Is there any reason why you couldnt "sink" the bridge down into the body (neck)? That is assuming youre using a tune-o-matic style bridge; but why couldnt you use a hardtail or trem style? Wouldnt that allow you to keep the neck perpendicular to the body wings? Ive seen that on carvin guitars, they are made this way, or a variation of it at least. I have a Schecter C1 classic, and it has an angled neck and an angled headstock. If i were to lay the guitar on the ground, all the weight rests on the headstock because its farther back than the bottom of the body. This seems "not-good" (for lack of a better term) although, I dont think it would cause that much of a problem, I still dont like it. Does anyone know any benefits to angling the neck? Im considering making my guitar a neck-thru, but dont like this angling thing. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks alot -Random Edited September 17, 2004 by RandomAccess Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lex Luthier Posted September 17, 2004 Report Share Posted September 17, 2004 Does anyone know any benefits to angling the neck? With Tune-O-Matics, or TOM's, playability is a benefit. You need to angle the neck back slightly to get the right action. With Strat type bridges you don't need an angle. If you do not want to deal with an angled neck then go with a Strat style bridge - trem or hardtail. I have, however, used one of these without a neck angle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomAccess Posted September 17, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 17, 2004 Well I understand the need for good action, obviously; but to my knowledge, if you just sink the posts (and the actual bridge itself, you rout a cavity for the bridge to sit in) on a TOM style bridge, you can level the neck, bringing the strings parallel to the body and neck, but still giving you great action...I think...:-p -Random Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted September 17, 2004 Report Share Posted September 17, 2004 Part of the extra angle behind the nut and also on a TOM is due to a problem called secondary harmonics as well i/e the reason behind a string tree on Strat necks......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
javacody Posted September 17, 2004 Report Share Posted September 17, 2004 Lex, would you use one of these without a neck angle as well: ? That's the lightweight aluminum wrap around tailpiece from pigtailmusic.com. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Setch Posted September 17, 2004 Report Share Posted September 17, 2004 Trying to avoid neck angle is a false economy. It isn't hard to angle a neck, and there are a number of reasons why you want to maintain a high bridge and angled neck, rather than straight neck and low bridge. One is to keep downwards force on the bridge. This is vital with a tunamatic, since lack of downwards pressure allows strings to rattle, or jump out of their saddles. It also results in wishy washy, plunky tone, which sucks. On a strat syle bridge, recessing could work, unless you actually want a decent gap between your strings and your body, and maybe some room for some pickups? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lex Luthier Posted September 17, 2004 Report Share Posted September 17, 2004 Lex, would you use one of these without a neck angle as well: ? That's the lightweight aluminum wrap around tailpiece from pigtailmusic.com. I don't know, I'd have to see it. I also don't really think aluminum would be the best bridge material, not very dense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigdguitars Posted September 17, 2004 Report Share Posted September 17, 2004 Yea but stewmac claims that it is... so it must be true... lol Personally I would never put anything other than brass on a bridge but there are not those options out there. I have sunken bridges on guitars, and to be honest its ok... much better to go with an angled neck, many benifits as mentioned earlier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted September 17, 2004 Report Share Posted September 17, 2004 On a strat syle bridge, recessing could work, unless you actually want a decent gap between your strings and your body, and maybe some room for some pickups? keep in mind that most major manufacturers have guitars with these styles of bridges,not recessed,with no neck angle...they get around it by raising the fretboard above the body...i believe i covered this in that neck thru tut i started a while back t.o.m.....well i have done it with a neck thru with no angle...by recessing the bridge...but the angle is better to have...if you use a t.o.m....use a neck angle...if you use a strat type bridge,you don't need to....and angling it actually decreases the gap between the strings and the body in this case Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nouseforone Posted September 18, 2004 Report Share Posted September 18, 2004 is this only true for neck tru as said in the original post?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lex Luthier Posted September 18, 2004 Report Share Posted September 18, 2004 is this only true for neck tru as said in the original post?? What, the neck angle? The neck angle depends on the bridge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted September 18, 2004 Report Share Posted September 18, 2004 neck angle has nothing to do with whether or not it is a neck thru Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
javacody Posted September 18, 2004 Report Share Posted September 18, 2004 (edited) Vintage Les Paul afficianados swear by aluminum tailpieces for vintage tone (they were what Gibson used from 54 to the early 60's I believe). I noticed a very large improvement on my own LP style guitar when I upgraded to an aluminum tailpiece. Of course, it all depends on what you're after. Personally, I'm not a fan of brass on a guitar in any way, shape or form. I believe it sucks tone. I also prefer vintage type guitars over their floyd and brass bearing brethren. I'll stick to my pigtail music tailpieces and Callaham vintage type trems thanks very much. Edited September 18, 2004 by javacody Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomAccess Posted September 19, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 19, 2004 Wow guys, thanks alot. Can anybody elaborate more on this secondary harmonics thing? And I thought the string trees on fenders were to keep tension by putting the strings on a straighter angle with the tuners, which is the equivilant of angling back the headstock...or am I wrong about that? My C1-Classic has a TonePros bridge (which I neglected to mention ) and string through the body. my bridge is locked in place with or without strings on it, so the string rattleing wouldnt be a problem, and besides...If you use string through body (which I had planed on doing...but also neglected to mention ) wouldnt that give a good enough yank on it anyway? It also results in wishy washy, plunky tone, which sucks. Really? Do you have any idea what would cause it? Ive never really heard of such a thing... and Nouseforone...it depends on the bridge, but on a bolt on neck guitar, you just need to add shims to the back side to raise the neck angle if you use a TOM style bridge...that is, if you modify it to use a TOM...it it comes from the factory or you build it with a TOM bridge you would just angle the end of the neck that fits into the neck pocket. (If Im wrong about that...someone please tell me :D ) Anyway...thanks again, been tons of help already -Random Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomAccess Posted September 21, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 21, 2004 *bump* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cracked Posted October 1, 2004 Report Share Posted October 1, 2004 As far as routing an angled neck pocket, is there a secret to this? COuld you just cut a very thin 'wedge' shim and glue it to the bottom of the neck pocket? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VanKirk Posted October 2, 2004 Report Share Posted October 2, 2004 As far as routing an angled neck pocket, is there a secret to this? COuld you just cut a very thin 'wedge' shim and glue it to the bottom of the neck pocket? You can use a shim (glue not neccessary) to add an angle to an existing neck pocket but if building from scratch it's very easy to just add the angle when routing. I just shimmed my neck pocket template at the amount of degree that I wanted, made sure it wouldn't move on me then routed along the template. It wasn't very hard at all. Seems like more of a hassle to try and recess a bridge or add shims than just routing an angled neck pocket to begin with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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