Method For Reproducing Neck Angle

[Mickguard]

I'm getting ready to route my very first neck pocket (insert smiley for wetting one's pants).

I've been looking a Myka's jig tutorial--but he judges his angles by eye, I'm not quite ready for that...

Since I'm using the neck off an existing guitar, I thought the easiest thing might be to reproduce the angle of that guitar.

And then I thought...suppose I lay the guitar so it's flat, then take a level (or attach my mini level to a long straight edge) and lay that down along the guitar's neck.

Then I can mark the sides and center of the bubble ....

Then I build a version of Myka's jig ---and adjust the support bars until the bubble matches the lines I've marked.

Any reason why this wouldn't work?

[jer7440]

Seems like it should work. As long as you do your measurment and set up on a good level surface you should be fine.

[erikbojerik]

This will only work if (#1) the table you lay your body down on is absolutely level, and (#2) this table stays level for every body you work on. When you use the bubble in a level to check the neck angle, you're assuming that absolute level =0 degrees neck angle, but that won't be true if the table is not level.

To check the level of the table, take your carpenters level and place it on the table, adjust the feet, rotate the level 45-degrees, adjust the feet again, repeat as necessary until the table is level no matter how you place the level. Of course this assumes your table is flat

I do this differently; I take my neck pocket template and stick a shim under the end nearest the bridge so that it tilts a little. I know the thickness of the shim (measured with calipers) and the required neck angle, so with a little trigonometry I can calculate how far toward the bridge to place the shim. I've never had a problem.

[Mickguard]

thanks for the tips....

as for trigonometry....yikes!

[silvertonessuckbutigotone]

couldnt you take the neck out of the guitar, put the body somewhere pretty flat, lay a LONG straight edge on the neck pocket and then have someone hold it there, and then go to where the straight edge hits the ground and measure that angle

jk, what I would do is just go with a appropriate neck angle for that type of bridge. That doesn't really answer your question so in other words, no idea.