Question On Neck Angle?

[ihocky2]

I have been working several design out in CAD and keep coming up with only 1.5 or 1.75 degree neck angles when using TOM bridges. It doesn't seem to matter wether it is 24.75 or 25.5 inch scales. I just keep getting low neck angles. I know that some people get up to 4 degrees so I was wondering if I am doing something wrong or if it mainly where I have the neck and body meeting up. On the LP style I have designed the top of the body is meeting around 8 or 9 frets in, and the bottom is about 5 or 6 frets in. I think this may be why my numbers are so different than Gibsons normal numbers. I have the TOM drawn to complete scale and the heigth is within +- .002 so I know that is not the problem. I was kind of wondering what most other people find to be their normal neck angles and if there are any ideas why mine are so shallow.

[redwhiteandthemaple]

I'm not sure.. but I was thinking...

The height of your fretboard matters

And of course the bridge heigh matters..(but I don't think this one's much of a problem)

The higher the fretboard is set, the lesser the angle.

This makes sense to me..

Not completely sure

[SwedishLuthier]

As redwhite said the thickness of the fret board. You also have to take into consideration the height of your frets and your planed string action. Higher fret OR high action gives you a lower angel.

One more factor is also involved. If back side of the fret board is flush with the top at the end of the fretboard (recessed into the surface towards the edge of the guitar) or flush with the top at the edge of the body (elevated at the end, often using wedges under the fret board if doing it Gibson style).

I have an example for you if it makes you feel more comfortable:

On my first wrap around bridge guitar I did the elevated fretboard thing and used a three degree angle. That was way too much. On one of my latest I had a recessed fretboard neck and the neck angle was around two degrees.

If you have drawn it up and it looks right it probably is.

[j. pierce]

Is this a carved top guitar? I ended up going around 2 degrees on my flattop guitars - the neck angle is often more simply because it's following the carve of the top.

Many of the Gibsons/Epiphones I've played have had to have the bridges raised quite a bit to accommodate the neck angle anyway.

If it works out on paper, and you've taken everything into consideration, then you should be fine.

[Mickguard]

Have a look at page 21 in the Hiscock book --there's a photo of an LP Jr with a slightly raised fretboard and a small angle.

The bridge I have (which is replica of an original 50s LP Jr bridge) stands lower than the compensated wraparound they started using --and much lower than the Badass replacement bridge I have.