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Angled Neck Pocket For Tun-o-matic Style Bridge


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long time guitar player, first time guitar builder.

some local luthiers in Portland told me this is a great forum so here's my question.

I am building a hollow-body tele/PRS inspired body and am looking at the Gotoh 510 as a bridge option. all the lit says I must angle the neck pocket 1.5 - 3 degrees to accommodate the bridge.

e.g.

wamoth bridge link

so I am looking for tips and tricks for routing out a neck pocket with the right angle or other ideas for perhaps recessing the bridge into the body. Whatever is simple as this is hopefully the first of many custom designed guitars.

thanks

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Look around for links to Myka's neck pocket jig ...oh okay, here we go...lemme see now...Myka's Neck Pocket Jig Thread w/link

That's pretty much all you'll need to know.

By the way, a neck angle is NOT an absolute requirement --you can go with a straight neck, but in that case the neck will stand proud of the body --have a look at most Rickenbackers to see what I mean. Or my Rocket 350 (my own take on a Rick 350.

After playing this guitar for the last month, I have to say, I really like the raised neck and the strings being this proud of the body (but the guitar has a doubled pickguard, so that helps). I recognize that's not to everyone's taste, but I think I'm going to stick with this style for my next build too.

The other option is to recess the bridge, which will allow you to achieve Fender-style string height. The neck angle is there to accommodate the taller Gibson-type bridges.

As far as I can tell, there's no incidence on the tone or sustain (well, none that would be all that quantifiable) from having the neck angle or not.

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I use that bridge all the time. My templates are about 2 degrees. It's all you'll need. Keep the fingerboard close to the body at the point where it passes the front edge of the body. I do about 1/16" above. (I am referring to the BOTTOM of the fingerboard-the glue line)

You'll end up with the bridge being pretty close to the body, and the strings don't stick up so high from the top of the guuitar.

-Doug

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