Neck Through Question

[Ledzendrix1128]

So i noticed on most basses that with a neck through it isnt just the fingerboard glued onto the same level as the bridge. I was wondering if it was necessary to make the bridge on a lower geometric plane that the fingerboard (not real sure if im explaining this right).

BRIDGE___________FINGERBOARD

VS

__________________________Fingerboard

Bridge______________/

I hope you guys can understand it, its kinda hard to explain... but my question is... do you need to raise up the fingerboard with a flat mount bridge, or is that only necessary with angled necks?

Edited December 16, 2005 by Ledzendrix1128

[Mickguard]

I may be wrong but....

Flat mount bridges are used for guitars with no neck angle. The saddles give you some flexibility for raising or lowering them.

Bridges that stand proud of the surface usually work for angled necks. If you want to use one with no neck angle, you usually need to recess it.

This is why any minute now one of the other guys is going to respond with a "draw out your guitar full scale" type rant --you really should have figured this part out before starting the guitar, it's kind of a fundamental step in the guitar design. (and you're not supposed to change your mind in mid-stream, like I did )

You're also supposed to match the bridge to the radius of your fretboard too.

[thegarehanman]

If you're not going to have a neck angle, regardless of the bridge, you'll need the fretboard to stand proud of the guitar to a certain extent if you're not going to recess the bridge. If your fretboard is 1/4" thick, that doesn't leave your strings very far from the body of the guitar when you're done. I was wondering why you ran your wings and neck through the planer together. Probably wasn't the best decision. Plans are one of the most valuable tools you can have for a guitar build imho.

Edited December 16, 2005 by thegarehanman

[erikbojerik]

If you carefully measure a Strat, you'll notice that the fretboard often is a bit higher than 1/4" above the body; so if you made a neck-thru Strat and insisted on a 1/4" fretboard, you'd actually have to recess the bridge. If your neck blank and body are already on the same plane, then you have two simple options.

#1 you can use a thicker fretboard blank....check the plans that you drew out first to figure out how thick. You'll also need to split the truss rod rout between the neck blank and fretboard (i.e. rout the channel into both). If you just rout the channel into the neck blank, you'll find you won't have enough wood underneath the rod on the back of the neck, and you might get a blow-out.

#2 you can recess the bridge.

A more complicated option would be to thin down the entire body, or carve it in such a way that the bridge sits lower. But neither of these would be an option if you were planning on using a trem and your body was already 1-3/4" thick...

An even more complicated option would be to cut/plane a small neck angle into your neck blank, which would work only if you have enough thickness left to work with.

[thegarehanman]

Or you could laminate another piece of maple on top of the neck, plane it down, route for the truss rod, and slap a 1/4" fretboard on it. That would make your life easier. You really like getting yourself into situations that require adding to the neck, don't you. Seems like if you go this route, it wouldn't hurt to add some CF rods to the neck for security.

[Ledzendrix1128]

haha, yeah im putting in 2 graphite rods already, Ill most likely end up adding maple underneath. I guess I shoulda planned it out a little better, I did think of it, i just figured there would be no problem about the height, until i started looking at pictures of about every neck-through guitar having a raised neck plane. I just havent seen this issue talked about too often, so i overlooked it.

- Maybe Ill Laminate walnut underneath the fretboard to compliment the stripes in the neck (who knows it could be one of those "yeah i meant to do it" things")

And btw, the problem i had with the neck your referring to was just a measuring error, the back had a smaller measurement than the front bc the bandsaw wasnt straight, so theres no need to add anything there

Edited December 16, 2005 by Ledzendrix1128