newbie22 Posted September 4, 2006 Report Share Posted September 4, 2006 hey, i just recieved my neck blank for my first guitar, a thru neck mockingbird and i have some questions about marking out a side elevation, namely - how wide the should the neck be and how steep the neck to body join angle should be. i was wondering how deep the neck has to be from a side elevation. i was thinking one inch without the fretboard, would this be ok? im sure uve seen neck thru guitars and the lovely way the body just glides at an angle into the neck. i was thinking of starting the angle at the 20th fret and joining the body at the 15th. does anyone have a sure fire way of getting this right every time or is it more 'intuition' based? thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
postal Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 Scarey, Scarey!!!!!! This is a fast way to trash a guitar. You really have to be patient, and plan this out right before you start cutting. Get some poster board, mechanical pencil, your bridge and a yardstick..... You need to draw out the side view with the bridge in hand, so you know how high it is to the top of the saddle. Draw a long straight line- that is the string..... below that, draw a parallel line for the fretboard, taking fret height and string height into account..... mark the nut and the scale length for the bridge placement, and measure the height of the bridge..... and viola.... you found the baseline for the bridge...... and you can change the amount of neck angle by shifting the point of where the neck/body join is..... Find a neckthru FAQ if that didnt make sense. It'll probably explain it a lot better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fryovanni Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 You do need to get your plan straight before you start cutting a neck thru. A full size set of plans are a must. This is an example of a drawing (mind you this bass has no neck angle)-click This is an example of how I cut the neck thru section using templates from my drawings-click Don't even start to think about cutting wood until you have a clear plan, and understand how you are going to do the work. If you screw up your neck your project is shot. It effectively is the guitar with wings attached. If you want to leave the neck 1" thick before carving that is ok (although thicker than I leave mine). Generally your neck with fretboard attached will be less than 1" overall when all is said and done. Peace,Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newbie22 Posted September 5, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 ok, thanks for that, i decided to make the neck 3'4" i'll be using a wilkinson gotoh strat style tremolo, as i understand it you do not need a neck angle for this or am i mistaken? best to get these things sorted out. i intend to plan very thoroughly and i have to say feedback on this forum factors pretty highly for tackling all the little problems that creep up at the planning stage. and..surprise, surprise, i have another question is 1 and 13/16 " (nearly 2 inches) too thick for a body? im considering cutting it to just one inch thickness. im making a bc rich mockingbird Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 ok, thanks for that, i decided to make the neck 3'4" i'll be using a wilkinson gotoh strat style tremolo, as i understand it you do not need a neck angle for this or am i mistaken? best to get these things sorted out. i intend to plan very thoroughly and i have to say feedback on this forum factors pretty highly for tackling all the little problems that creep up at the planning stage. and..surprise, surprise, i have another question is 1 and 13/16 " (nearly 2 inches) too thick for a body? im considering cutting it to just one inch thickness. im making a bc rich mockingbird Two inches is about the normal size. I don't think a Gotoh would work with a one inch body... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newbie22 Posted September 5, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 ah rite. no problemos. thanks for the reply Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
postal Posted September 8, 2006 Report Share Posted September 8, 2006 A great deal of guitars are 1 3/4 thick, so that body thickness is fine. That bridge does not require a neck angle, but strats are "stepped" so the neck wood and fretboard sit higher than the body. You will need to account for this height difference as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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