Neck angles

[newbiejon]

Hi

i know that you have to angle the headstock back or use string trees but is there a specific angle for the neck to be related to the body. I've looked at my bro's strat and can't see much of an angle if any but really i need to know about PRS/Les Paul guitars and i don't have one going spare.

Thanks in advance

[MzI]

it depends on the type of bridge you use. trems for the most part dont need an angle, toms do usually 2 -- 3 degrees

MzI

[rhoads56]

Angle the headstock to suit your headstock thickness and tuner type, and tuner location. Its best that you draw it out yourself, so you can feel comfortable with the layout. It will also depend on how much wood you have (single piece) or if its scarf jointed. Iam currently building a series of guitars with a 5 degree angle, and have done 13 degree angles previously.

[MzI]

sorry bout that read it too quickly, ive seen some gibsons that have up to a 17 degree headstock angle, you should check out the gibson website all of the headstock angles should be on there if im not mistaken

MzI

[westhemann]

Hi

i know that you have to angle the headstock back or use string trees but is there a specific angle for the neck to be related to the body. I've looked at my bro's strat and can't see much of an angle if any but really i need to know about PRS/Les Paul guitars and i don't have one going spare.

Thanks in advance

please clarify if you are talking about headstock angle or neck angle...it is unclear

[Curtis P]

I thought he was talking about the neck angle??

If the neck angle, on my strat copy there is maybe 2 degree angle, the headstock is about 3 or 4 degree angle

Hope that helps??

Curtis

[Devon Headen]

I thought Strat headstocks didn't have any angle. 17 degree headstock is really sharp, you'd probably have trouble with strings sticking at the nut. I use 10 degrees...works great for me. It leaves more wood support for the headstock, but leaves enough angle to pull the strings well.

[BLS]

If he's not tlaking about neck angles, then why did he title it "Neck angles" ?? The reason strats dont have neck angels is because their bridges dont require it. Whereas a Les paul or a PRS with a Tune o matics bridge does require a neck angle. But PRS' with the tremolo do not need a neck angle

[Drak]

He did mention the words 'string trees' in his post

= headstock angle. (or so I would assume )

[soapbarstrat]

How come I understand it (I'm the last one to understand what's going on).

My brain says he asked something like this :

I know headstocks have an angle, or there are "string trees" to simulate an angle, but what about the entire neck in relation to the body ; does the neck angle downward at the neck/body joint ? If so, how much, especially on a PRS type guitar ?

[westhemann]

How come I understand it (I'm the last one to understand what's going on).

My brain says he asked something like this :

I know headstocks have an angle, or there are "string trees" to simulate an angle, but what about the entire neck in relation to the body ; does the neck angle downward at the neck/body joint ? If so, how much, especially on a PRS type guitar ?

that's what i get out of it too.but clarification from the author would be nice

[Drak]

I agree w/ you guys now. He just mentioned the trees in passing then moved on to his main question which was, indeed, the neck angle.

[rhoads56]

Yep, looks like i was also wrong.

Why cant people simply use the damn search function?? It would save a lot of time.

[Drak]

Why cant people simply use the damn search function?? It would save a lot of time.

Blame it on MTV

[newbiejon]

Hi

cheers for your replies, sorry if i was unclear. I need to know about the angle of the neck compared to the body. I know that strats headstock is not angled and that gibsons/prs do but its the neck/body angle i need info on. I think some of you covered it but just to clarify myself

cheers so far.

[newbiejon]

ps the reason for the delay with my clarification is that im in the UK so i had to wait till i woke up to read all your comments.

[Jehle]

Okay, so you are observing that there are two sets of angles. One, the headstock angle. Two, the angle of the neck on the body.

A typical Strat has no headstock angle, and no angle to the body. Everything is straight.

Gibson style guitars will have an angled headstock (anywhere from 10 to 17 degrees as noted in previous replies), and the neck is angled... enough to have the strings meet the bridge in the right place. I don't play Gibsons and I don't like set necks so I'm not the right person to talk about that.

Have you tried getting Melvyn Hiscock's book? He does a good job of explaining this sort of thing.

[soapbarstrat]

On a guitar with a Les Paul type bridge, and a carved top, there needs to be quite an angle, so that the bridge can be adjusted either up or down, when the strings are sitting at about the right action height off the fret-board.

From my understanding, that is the ideal outcome, but it doesn't work out so perfect with many guitars, especially acoustics. I've heard that only 1 out of 10 leave the factory with the neck angle and other things all matching up properly. A pretty common guitar repair is a " neck re-set" to correct a neck angle that is too imperfect (like the bridge can't be adjusted to get the string height right)

On a strat, there's no carved top and the stock bridges and saddles are pretty low, and don't need the string height to be that far off the body. But on non-recessed floyded strats, you need neck angle. Even the stock bridges sometimes need it.

I angle my strat's neck with a tapered shim, because I like the strings farther off the body than normal, but still want low string height over the fret-tops.