spotenator

You know I just order the Gibson Firebird (set neck) templates and realized, after I had cut my neck angle in $50 worth of mahogany, that the fretboard is only about 17.5" while the actual specs for a Firebird fretboard spec to just over 18". When I asked him he responded by saying noone has complained yet. The length is clearly wrong. The only way I am going to be able to salvage this wood is to go with a bolt on configuration (i.e. not enough length in the wood to lengthen the neck and still have enough to cover the body needed). As for the neck pocket temps, I too ordered the Stew Mac only to return it. I have used the method in the previous link with exceptional results. I use this method to make a 1/4" plexi template from which I then use a pattern bit to complete a perfect pocket.

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

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

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