Would Anybody Be Willing To Look Over A Template?

[Vultite]

I've been planing on making an explorer for so long now. I have the template almost done! Would anybody be willing to look it over to see if I'm totally wrong or if everything looks good? This is very detailed, it's a very large file. It's like 300 dpi 1to1 scale.

I think this winter my father and I may actually make one.

[Digideus]

Sure thing. got a link for it? What format is it in?

[fryovanni]

Sure thing. If you have it in Cad format that would be cool, but any format is cool as long as it is drawn to scale.

Peace,Rich

[Digideus]

Awww no fair, he said it better than me

[Vultite]

Well I can save it as a gif, which makes a 200k file. (remember this thing is huge!)

anyways, I could really use the help with figuring out how to do the angle of a neckthru. When you look at the file it will be strange but you can see what step im on, which is the side view.

For example if you zoom in you can see I planned out the location of the bridge exactly, even down to the strings hehe.

My major questions are

How do I figure out the angle of the neck? I'm confused on this part, I'm not totally brand new to the topic.

This is the book I have:

Make Your Own Electric Guitar

I also want to know about fretboard height and nut placement. The stuff I have now is just kind of "there"

It's been awhile since I've worked on this file. I got really confused and then lost the money to continue with the project.

RIGHT CLICK, Save As!

Edited September 21, 2006 by Vultite

[Digideus]

A Neckthru angle is a bit different to a bolt on neck angle because you have to take the whole length of the neck thru section into account.

Melvyn Hiscocks book goes into a lot of detail about neck angle and how to work it out. Draw a line that is the same measurement as the length between the bridge and the nut. Draw in the height of the bridge and draw a connecting line to establish the neck tilt angle.

Another option (One which MANY builders use) it to recess the bridge into the body. This means you dont need to angle the neck because the recess into the body does the same job of lowering the strings closer to the fretboard.

At the top of this page you will see a SEARCH function, and I know theres been many posts in the past explaining neck tilt, fretboards and nut measurement, so have a look there and if you dont understand it, do some more reading. Im pretty sure you can find everything you need on this site.

The template looks fine from here, Although measurements are everything with any sort of plan. Get yourself a copy of TurboCAD if you havent already and read up about the dimensions toolbar and add measurements to the plan.

[fryovanni]

From what I can see it looks like a good start. Double check the last tuner on the headstock to make sure it will fit (looks a little narrow). Here is a link to an Explorer I helped a co-workers son with (shop project that needed a jump start).click(I should point out that one was notched for a Maple top.

As far as placements and angles and such. Buy your hardware if you can (it is best to measure the parts and use that info for planning). If you want some general info- TOM is about 1/2" tall, fretboard is usually 1/4"+/- 1/16", fretwire height varies so check the specs for the type you want to use. I like to adjust the neck angle so that if you draw a straight line across the top of the frets it would meet the top of the bridge saddles (your strings will be higher depending on how you like your action, but this way you are sure you can goto the lowest setting). I place the break in my neck angle at the end of the fretboard (it usually works out to be about 2 degrees +/- 1 degree). Make sure that profile template is spot on and you can use it to cut the neck blank profile (be sure the top of the neck blank--fretboard surface-- is dead straight and true. That will be your reference surface). Generally I take my neck blank. True it up. Mark my center lines. Mark the nut location, 12th. fret location, and end of fretboard location. I route for my truss rod. I glue my templates for the side profile and top profile. I cut the profile (withinabout 1/8"). I then cut the top shape. That gets the neck thru section pretty well ruffed out and angles set. (not too challenging with a bandsaw).

Peace,Rich