Body Routing Advice

[buttmonk]

Hi board,

I am planning to make a custom guitar body to go with a Warmoth Pro 25.5'' 22 fret neck. The body will be flat top, with Gotoh tune-o-matic bridge with string thru body. Generally I want to know the best strategy for calculating the routes for pups and bridge relative to the neck pocket. Here is my bunch of questions:

1) I guess I should go with a standard strat neck pocket, meaning it will be flat bottom (no neck angle) and 5/8" deep (from top of flat top body)?

2) So if if I want to get away without a neck pocket angle, I understand that I need to recess the bridge, but how much?

3) How do i calculate how far away from the neck the bridge should be? I guess it needs to be slightly angled so how is that calculated? Naturally this is defined by the scale of the guitar....

4) How do I calculate the pup positions? I am planning to have a neck humbucker and a bridge humbucker...

5) Does anyone know of some place where I can download templates that would cover some of the above which I could just print out 1:1 and use to make my mdf routing template?

6) I plan to position the string thru body holes at the bridge in a "fan" formation so they will not be running perpendicular to the bridge (i.e. in a sense the tension on the string is not pulling straight thru the bridge saddle pieces). Will this cause any problems in tuning etc...? I just think it would look interesting.

Once I have all this worked out I will make a template in mdf to see what it looks like and to route from.

Any advice much appreciated:)

[iskim86]

Hi board,

I am planning to make a custom guitar body to go with a Warmoth Pro 25.5'' 22 fret neck. The body will be flat top, with Gotoh tune-o-matic bridge with string thru body. Generally I want to know the best strategy for calculating the routes for pups and bridge relative to the neck pocket. Here is my bunch of questions:

1) I guess I should go with a standard strat neck pocket, meaning it will be flat bottom (no neck angle) and 5/8" deep (from top of flat top body)?

2) So if if I want to get away without a neck pocket angle, I understand that I need to recess the bridge, but how much?

3) How do i calculate how far away from the neck the bridge should be? I guess it needs to be slightly angled so how is that calculated? Naturally this is defined by the scale of the guitar....

4) How do I calculate the pup positions? I am planning to have a neck humbucker and a bridge humbucker...

5) Does anyone know of some place where I can download templates that would cover some of the above which I could just print out 1:1 and use to make my mdf routing template?

6) I plan to position the string thru body holes at the bridge in a "fan" formation so they will not be running perpendicular to the bridge (i.e. in a sense the tension on the string is not pulling straight thru the bridge saddle pieces). Will this cause any problems in tuning etc...? I just think it would look interesting.

Once I have all this worked out I will make a template in mdf to see what it looks like and to route from.

Any advice much appreciated:)

i'm not an expert, but....

1) yes.

2) approximately 5/8", but a bit more for the anchor to fit, and because you can always adjust it later on.

3) it is 25.5" on the high E string. that's all i know, someone else can chime in on that.

4) do you have another HH guitar? just use that to measure and make a template.

5) no, but if you google it, you can find a lot.

6) no tuning problems. only the string between the nut and the saddle matters. the only problem i can see that'll be apparent is if it's too angled, the string will bend a little past the saddle (in the scale)

[Setch]

Fanning the string through is not a look I care for, and it will significantly increase the risk of strings jumping out of the bridge saddles, especially if you don't have a good steep break angle, and substantial notches in the saddles. The cosmetics is upto you, but I'd be careful you don't cause problems just to be 'interesting'.

[jmrentis]

StewMac Scale Length/Bridge position

Here is a link to a very hand little calculator. Just punch in your specs and it will give the information you require regarding your bridge placement. Not sure if it describes the angle of bridge for proper scale length, but you can find that elsewhere if not. As for pups positions, I am unsure of the actual harmonic areas, but mostly I see them places as close as you can to the end of the fretboard on for the neck and the bridge pup is around an inch above the bridge(from the saddles to the very bottome of edge of the actual pup), but there are different styled bridges. Check around the site and even look for that bridge I am fairly sure they even tell you how deep to route, not certain but I think so. Great site full of info, if you haven't checked it out. Good luck.

[buttmonk]

Thanks all for helpfull input!!

Rgds Q 2) bridge route depth, I got a few hints from reading other threads. Would it be appropriate to calculate the bridge height by assuming that the bridge should be level with the top of the nut (actually a few mm below this to be safe), then route the bridge recess to such a depth that the bridge will be at nut height when it is on its lowest setting, then it will need to be raised a bit to get some fret relief..??

[biliousfrog]

The bridge height is determined by scale length, bridge & neck angle, the process is the same as working out the neck angle. You're not having a neck angle & you've decided to recess the bridge so you need to work out how high the neck is going to be raised off the body & how low you can get the bridge whilst still allowing the action to be adjusted. This is something that only you can work out by drawing full size. I personally go by the bridge being level with the fingerboard minus frets when set to it's lowest position, then you can raise it to the correct action.

[buttmonk]

The bridge height is determined by scale length, bridge & neck angle, the process is the same as working out the neck angle. You're not having a neck angle & you've decided to recess the bridge so you need to work out how high the neck is going to be raised off the body & how low you can get the bridge whilst still allowing the action to be adjusted. This is something that only you can work out by drawing full size. I personally go by the bridge being level with the fingerboard minus frets when set to it's lowest position, then you can raise it to the correct action.

Thanks. So I understand that u are confirming my previous post i.e. since there is no neck angle and the fret board and body are parallel, and therefore the bridge is perpendicular to both, the correct strategy is to sink the bridge so that on its lowest setting the strings thru the bridge are level with the strings at the nut plus some buffer, which in your case is the height of the frets off the fret board. And therefore, in my case, scale length does not have anything much to do with the equation... Thanks again.

Edited May 21, 2007 by buttmonk

[westhemann]

Hope you enjoy that warmoth neck...i bought a mahogany 22 fret neck with ss frets and a pau ferro fretboard from them a while back to replace a wizard neck on an ibanez sabre,and i could not have been happier.

great neck.