Neck-thru Firebird Construction

[spotenator]

I started my construction on a neck-thru Firebird this weekend and I decided to go down the to local Guitar Center to take a look at one up close. Upon inspection, the neck appears to be at a slight angle relative to the body to account for the heighth on the bridge. My question is with a single piece neck-thru center section, how does one achieve that angle?

One potential way I thought of was cutting the fretboard at the angle but that could lead to all sorts of undulations.

Any thoughts from out there?

Thanks

[j. pierce]

I started my construction on a neck-thru Firebird this weekend and I decided to go down the to local Guitar Center to take a look at one up close. Upon inspection, the neck appears to be at a slight angle relative to the body to account for the heighth on the bridge. My question is with a single piece neck-thru center section, how does one achieve that angle?

One potential way I thought of was cutting the fretboard at the angle but that could lead to all sorts of undulations.

Any thoughts from out there?

Thanks

When I did mine, I started with a neck-through blank that was substantially thicker than the finished body height, and glued the wings on at an angle. This left the top surface of the neck (which had been trued) alone. Then I planed down (A router jig would work fine here too) the neck-through "core" on the top near the bridge and on the bottom near the heel where it protruded from the level surface of the guitar body. (Did that make sense? It's hard for me to describe these things w/o pictures) I've also seen it discussed to carfully saw this angle off the top of the back end of the core, and flip it around and glue it to the bottm back of the core to allow use of a thinner or pre-made neck through. Of course, this makes a wierd glue line and might not be conducive to a transparent finish, depending on how well the grain matches up between the two pieces. If you were going to hide this in a solid finish, you could just laminate a piece on the back to use the first method and not worry about lining up the angled cuts. (Much easier to plane/route the proud surface true than make an accurate cut at a wierd angle to glue on the back, at least with the gear I have.)

I had an Epiphone Firebird a while back, and it used the same method I've seen on some SGs - simply raising the fingerboard height a considerable amount to compensate for the TOM w/o a neck angle. Not the most comfortable thing, but it worked. Of course, if you're doing neck-through construction (I believe this Firebird was a bolt-on to tell the truth) you still need to start with a piece of wood thicker than your finished body piece, so going the angled route may be easier.

[Woodenspoke]

I started my construction on a neck-thru Firebird this weekend and I decided to go down the to local Guitar Center to take a look at one up close. Upon inspection, the neck appears to be at a slight angle relative to the body to account for the heighth on the bridge. My question is with a single piece neck-thru center section, how does one achieve that angle?

One potential way I thought of was cutting the fretboard at the angle but that could lead to all sorts of undulations.

Any thoughts from out there?

Thanks

Man it's not rocket science just angle the neck where it meets the body. if you have no real plans and are doing this on the fly i suggest you make a plan first and mock up the one piece neck on a piece of paper before you cut it. You focus on the neck and surface where the fret board is glued up so its flat and at the correct angle. Then focus on the bottom side of the body connection of the through neck so thats flat. Two areas where you should be able to flatten a through neck with limited tooling. Once you glue up the body flatten the top of the body neck joint and carve the neck.

Making an angled fretboard is not siggested and has nothing to do with undulations what ever that means. If you already glued up the neck wothout plans to angle the neck I suggest you start over or use a different bridge.

Woodenspoke

[spotenator]

I started my construction on a neck-thru Firebird this weekend and I decided to go down the to local Guitar Center to take a look at one up close. Upon inspection, the neck appears to be at a slight angle relative to the body to account for the heighth on the bridge. My question is with a single piece neck-thru center section, how does one achieve that angle?

One potential way I thought of was cutting the fretboard at the angle but that could lead to all sorts of undulations.

Any thoughts from out there?

Thanks

Man it's not rocket science just angle the neck where it meets the body. if you have no real plans and are doing this on the fly i suggest you make a plan first and mock up the one piece neck on a piece of paper before you cut it. You focus on the neck and surface where the fret board is glued up so its flat and at the correct angle. Then focus on the bottom side of the body connection of the through neck so thats flat. Two areas where you should be able to flatten a through neck with limited tooling. Once you glue up the body flatten the top of the body neck joint and carve the neck.

Making an angled fretboard is not siggested and has nothing to do with undulations what ever that means. If you already glued up the neck wothout plans to angle the neck I suggest you start over or use a different bridge.

Woodenspoke

Woodenspoke, as its a neck-thru the neck and the body are one in the same. The templates I purchased are only of the neck thru and not a set neck option. That would have made it much easier.

I also considered the solution J Pierce offered and gluing the wings on at an angle. As I thought about that method, the risk of the pieces slipping while being clamped popped into my mind. I guess if I really wanted to stray and create something more unique, I could go with a different bridge/saddle option and remove the string angle.

Thanks for the suggestions

[Woodenspoke]

I started my construction on a neck-thru Firebird this weekend and I decided to go down the to local Guitar Center to take a look at one up close. Upon inspection, the neck appears to be at a slight angle relative to the body to account for the heighth on the bridge. My question is with a single piece neck-thru center section, how does one achieve that angle?

One potential way I thought of was cutting the fretboard at the angle but that could lead to all sorts of undulations.

Any thoughts from out there?

Thanks

Man it's not rocket science just angle the neck where it meets the body. if you have no real plans and are doing this on the fly i suggest you make a plan first and mock up the one piece neck on a piece of paper before you cut it. You focus on the neck and surface where the fret board is glued up so its flat and at the correct angle. Then focus on the bottom side of the body connection of the through neck so thats flat. Two areas where you should be able to flatten a through neck with limited tooling. Once you glue up the body flatten the top of the body neck joint and carve the neck.

Making an angled fretboard is not suggested and has nothing to do with undulations what ever that means. If you already glued up the neck without plans to angle the neck I suggest you start over or use a different bridge.

Woodenspoke

Woodenspoke, as its a neck-thru the neck and the body are one in the same. The templates I purchased are only of the neck thru and not a set neck option. That would have made it much easier.

I also considered the solution J Pierce offered and gluing the wings on at an angle. As I thought about that method, the risk of the pieces slipping while being clamped popped into my mind. I guess if I really wanted to stray and create something more unique, I could go with a different bridge/saddle option and remove the string angle.

Thanks for the suggestions

Sorry I have built instruments and many of them, I generally start out with some sort of plan to begin with then create a set of forms. Since I have a well equipped shop I dont have to guess as to what I am doing at any point in my project. For the most part I dont have the time to research this board to see what others have posted because generally I have been there and done that so for me I just add my two cents where I feel comfortable. yesterday I was in a pissy mood and saw a few posts which for the life of me I couldn't understand how these people expected to build anything given the questions should have been answered in the guitar building book they should have bought before they started. So if my answer offended you I apologize. This was not directed at you the book comment.

I know what neck through body is, several pieces of wood or a single piece glued together transversing from the headstock to the bottom of the body. If I missed neck through as something else please let me know. This option is generally started with a pattern which will require oversize pieces to create a neck angle and headstock from the glued up stock. Once you have this large piece of glued up stock bandsaw out the shape (minimal description) or use whatever tools at hand.

Now you have a roughed out through neck. Its easiest to flatten the bottom where the body wings are glued to the through neck so start there. then use the template to make sure the top of the neck where the fret board will be glued is at the proper angle and flatten that. It is easier at this point since you will be adding a truss rod using this surface. If the angle needs to be adjusted later you will still have some wiggle room. Again two areas which are easily flattened after the shape has been rough cut. Once the wings of the body are glued flatten the top of the body neck joint and you should be ready to start finish shaping. yes there are a lot more steps involved because you have pieces already protruding from the top and down at the head stock and the whole process does require more work and maybe thicker forms for the body shape and pickup routing work.

Again if you had thought about the project, the neck angle would have been incorporated into the template for the through neck. As far as wings at an angle idea sure if you have enough wood to change the angle of the bottom if the through neck where the wings are being glued onto. You cannot just glue wings to a board at an angle, you will have the make the angle first on the through neck and flatten it then glue the wings. Again with out a template you will never know if all this will work. I dont believe a slight change in overall angle will effect the strenght of the through neck only the absence of enough wood will be an issue here and for some reason I believe you did not leave yourself any extra wood to make these changes. Laminating additional pieces to the top or botttom will result in these pieces having an angle and honestly will look weird unless you are painting the guitar.

I hope I have confused you even more my 2 1/2 cents worth of advise.

Woodenspoke

[spotenator]

Again if you had thought about the project, the neck angle would have been incorporated into the template for the through neck. As far as wings at an angle idea sure if you have enough wood to change the angle of the bottom if the through neck where the wings are being glued onto. You cannot just glue wings to a board at an angle, you will have the make the angle first on the through neck and flatten it then glue the wings. Again with out a template you will never know if all this will work. I dont believe a slight change in overall angle will effect the strenght of the through neck only the absence of enough wood will be an issue here and for some reason I believe you did not leave yourself any extra wood to make these changes. Laminating additional pieces to the top or botttom will result in these pieces having an angle and honestly will look weird unless you are painting the guitar.

I hope I have confused you even more my 2 1/2 cents worth of advise.

Woodenspoke

[low end fuzz]

unless im missing sumtin here;

sink the bridge into the body;

a few points; you cant have too much releif in the neck or action on lower frets will be too high,

and you have to make sure the body dosent get in the way of loading your bridge when its sunk down;

o ryoull be removing it everytime you change your strings; dont ask why i know this

[ihocky2]

Go to the tutorials section. There is a great thread stickied in there about how to build a neck-thru with a neck angle. You need to have a plan before you even try and build anything, not just guitars.

[j. pierce]

FWIW - when I glued my body wings on to the neck core at an angle, I used a jig to make matching holes for each piece and doweled the joints so they wouldn't slip, since I didn't have a flat surface to make sure everything was true, and planing everything true w/ the neck in the way would have been an interesting challenge.

Also, don't forget about channels for routing your wires - easier to take care of those by putting them in the side of the neckthrough before glueup than trying to make them later.