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Newbie Question On Neck Angle


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Im taking on a thru neck les paul design for my first guitar, because I want to start out with something easy, ya know? (ha)

Well, I know how to figure out neck angles thanks to the book I bought on building electric guitars and this forum. What I cant figure out is what height to call the bridge, since I have a tune-o-matic adjustable bridge. It can obviously work in a 'range' of heights, and I was just wondering if anyone has advice on what height to use when making the angle or if there is a standard height used for it.

thanks, sorry for the newb question.

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Im taking on a thru neck les paul design for my first guitar, because I want to start out with something easy, ya know? (ha)

Well, I know how to figure out neck angles thanks to the book I bought on building electric guitars and this forum. What I cant figure out is what height to call the bridge, since I have a tune-o-matic adjustable bridge. It can obviously work in a 'range' of heights, and I was just wondering if anyone has advice on what height to use when making the angle or if there is a standard height used for it.

thanks, sorry for the newb question.

The neck angle on a LP is 4.5 degrees from the flat plane of the body max height.

The neck, therefor creates a plane along the fretboard to the bridge. The bridge is adjustable only to allow for changes such as for minor deviations in the body shape to create the arch top or personal playing height preferences. So, if your neck angle is right, you should be able to lay a straight edge from the nut, all the way along your frets and continuing to the bridge. At the point of where the bridge should be, the gap between body and straight edge is the minimum bridge height and any higher from there will eventually give correct playing action height.

Clear?

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Nice explanation Gosh. To add I think he wanted to know if he should take his measurements with the bridge posts raised some to leave room for error. Personally, I would imagine you'd want the bridge as low as possible to the body, hence the whole idea of angling the neck, so you'd want to measure with the bridge as low as possible, but does anyone give clearance for error when they find the angle or do you measure based on the bridge posts at their lowest? I just did mine and gave myself just a little clearance, so I raised the bridge posts just ever so slightly and took that measurement. Don't think I needed to, but I wanted to be sure I didn't end up making any mistakes and not being able to lower it slightly. Anyhow, best of luck sak.

Edited by jmrentis
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