mistermikev

interesting. I understand that later les pauls use 5 deg... earlier used anything from 2.5-3.5. I have a modern one and like it a lot... but I'm not sure how much of what I'm liking is the angle! also, interesting - sounds like you are saying (AD) that you are putting a secondary unknown angle on after... to smooth the transition between flat and the angled neck. On a les paul -they often do the back of the guitar in red (will do on mine)... pretty sure it would not only be hard to finish but look wonky to have that red carrying on to the front of the guitar below the binding on the neck. Perhaps a contributing factor to how they do it as you've mentioned agreed on the countersink. think I'll do that. food for thought... have to go measure the angles on a few of my guitars. thanks again for the replies.

thanks AD, I appreciate the reply. What I'm gathering from both your posts is you chose this method because it's the least amount of work according to how you do it. That's a solid reason. For me... it's not going to be more more/less work to do 2.5deg vs 5deg as I'm going to remove all material with my router. So I wonder... is 4.5 deg more comfy? does 2.5 sound better because the pickup sits further in the body? who knows. do either of you counter sink the lip on your studs? (sorry, you recess the studs AD)

thank you for the reply. while I do appreciate your drawing... see above - full size drawing - is that not showing up? You should see a scaled full size drawing sideview of my tele neck. My issue is not that I can't determine an angle... it's that I believe one could make any angle from 2.5deg to 5 degree work... so which one? Indecision... depending on how deep I want to set my neck into the guitar, where I want to make the angle start, I have played with my drawing and seen that there really isn't ONE answer. the way you are doing above... means your fretboard will be flush with the body at the end... but it doesn't HAVE to be. (EDIT - in other words the fretboard will be flush with the unplaned body height)

what in the wild world of sports kind of wood/finish is that (white?)... pretty cool. nice work.

so got my gotoh bridge... working out the angle for my 'les flaws'. It occurs to me that there are a lot is a lot of 'slop' that depending on how you do it you could choose many angles... so I am a bit unsure of myself due to this. Let me try to illiterate that: I could counter sink my studs... this will make perhaps a 1mm dif. I could change the break point... I hear folks talk about this a lot... on a lp it looks to me like they shave off material up to halfway in between the two pickups. iow, I could make the back of my fretboard even with the existing top right at the end of the fretboard, or I could lower the fretboard and take off more material as shown in my drawing below with the grey bar. I've opted to do this in my design. the gotoh bridge is 15mm at center saddle if I include the .5mm of the adjustment wheel that sits below the lowest point on the bridge. However, these saddles aren't really grooved yet. I could probably do anywhere from a .5mm slot to a 2mm slot depth. in my drawing below, I'm doing a 4.5deg angle, I'm figuring 16mm for my gotoh bridge, and I've figured in a .75" top, and figuring I would end up with a top thickness of .42 after planing at the sm 4.5deg angle 5.837" into the body. May have to revise as I contemplate at least 1mm slot in the saddle... but tell me anything you can think of about this, how you navigate the items I've mentioned, and anything I'm missing. breakangle.pdf

Whatever you celebrate, whatever you think of me, truly hope you are surrounded by family and friends today/tomorrow, and here's to good things your way. Thanks for allowing me to be part of this community! edit - oh, and happy hour.

nicely done. I like the little blondes spots showing thru. good job on the f hole. Not sure if those knobs quite do the rest of the guitar justice but that's just my humble o.

I'm all for chambered body. I like the feel of a thick guitar with the weight of a thin guitar myself. Northern ash is def going to require 'something' to make it light, if that's your goal. afa tonewood... follow your heart but let your head lead the way. There is no proving if something sounds better... so stating either side of the coin as fact, or believing that side as fact... without acknowledging the possibility of error, is the only way you can go wrong IMO. look fwd to seeing your build - love me some ash!

Being in a shop there is a certain acceptance that something can happen... I'm not so sure that is there with the wife, but then perhaps some of the employees where you work didn't know before (I bet they know now). When I was in high school I worked at a place where I was brutalized for being a newbie. Sent me to look for the 'sky jack' and 'board stretcher' and such. One of the guys would use a paper clip to pull back the safety mechanism on the brad gun, and he'd shoot you in the ass with 2 1/2" brads. Unfortunately they don't make safety goggles for your butt. at 50ft those things stung like a bb gun. I was just a sander so no real danger there... but the humility. aaahhh... good times.

for the record... if I offended anyone with my initial, or other comments - I apologize. I was a little wound up for sure. good news is - no one got hurt. I very much appreciate your and everyone's input.

holy crapola... congratulations. You don't make it that far without practicing "yes dear" so my hats off.

Thank you for your input Andy - given your obvious experience with that, I respect that opinion and will take a moment to look inward, but that only addresses half the problem. I didn't have an accident. I didn't flinch, didn't even take my focus off of the router - just consciously decided to stop. I did safely stop. That doesn't put safety goggles on my wife. I think there is merit in trying to prevent the scenario: Ex. I remove all metal tools from my bench when I work with a router because if I slip it could create a lethal projectile. Sure, not slipping is a good way to prevent that too. I can prevent her from opening that door with a lock... I can't guarantee she will put on safety glasses if she opens that door (in fact I know she won't). We're dealing with a hostile witness/employee here... one whom I love and don't want to see get hurt. I also don't want to see myself get hurt and no matter how safe you are - you can't guarantee it won't catch you eventually.

that'd be sweet. Look fwd to stealing tips from that so - get on it!

I hear ya... I try to let the router spin down before moving it but I'm guilty of breaking my own rule all the time. afa advice - sometimes it's less about the advice or sender and more about if the receiver is in the right space to learn it. Lots of different types of smart in the world and many are not recognizable to each other.

ya got to love the George. He used to play almost every year at summerfest in milw, wi so I've been fortunate to see him live many times. sorry, didn't mean to derail you. That guitar looks awesome. What color you goin' with? Anywho, i'll be watching and thank you again for sharing.

i stand corrected... just looked it up... es125. for some reason I thought it was a falcon. Guess I should have held off on that 1 bourban, scotch and beer.

I don't do much for videos of me working... altho I did do one recently of a top join... just too much of a distraction while working. I've got quite a few videos on youtube of me demoing ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCktim1mj88l9JAwQy4KB4eg ) ... but anyway my point was just that I do document things fairly well with pictures/explanations, and this paint process will be there should you desire to see it. afa a shop... might check your neighborhood for a local highschool or univ that does woodworking courses just to gain access to a spot. I know in AZ it's becoming more popular to have a communal woodshop in various gated communities. There's quite a few fellows here who seem to have those sort of hookups so maybe they'll chime in.

right on, sounds like a very understanding wife. how long you been together? We're creeping up on 25yrs. With most things there's a lot of understanding between us and she's def better than I deserve.

Unfortunately, it's not that she isn't aware of the situation... she just doesn't acknowledge that it's a danger... or perhaps doesn't care. That's the baffling thing. Honestly, I wouldn't want to open the door to someone running a router even if I knew they were totally safety conscious, never flinched, and waited for the router to wind down every time they used it - hehe.

you know what they say: "want to get your idea accepted at work? convince the boss it's his/hers."

well, on the one hand lets not generalize about all women as that would be sexist... on the other you are totally right in my experience, lol! I suppose that may be true of any of us at any given time. I have fine tuned ears but somehow cannot hear anything in the freq range of my wifes voice. afa locking the door - you don't keep your cell phone in your pocket at all times while woodworking? I do. I freq am out there while my wife is gone so... not sure how an unlocked door helps me there but... I see what you are saying - might not have a free hand while keeping pressure on the artery!

I would think just the sound of that router would be enough to tell someone they shouldn't be near it without some sort of eye protection. seriously beside myself.

norm have you looked at any of my build threads? If anything, I put in way more info than anyone wants to see, so "I'm on it"! hehe

so, 5 minutes ago I was out in my garage routering my neck. Using a 3/4" x1" x1/2" whiteside bit. I see some movement in the corner of my eye and realize that my wife is standing there. I carefully turn off my router and stand between her and it. I have a full face shield plus glasses on. She's just politely waiting for me to stop. I damn near shit my pants. I have tried many times to impress upon her that when she hears that thing running she absolutely cannot come into the garage... cannot even knock on the door. that it is a dangerous machine and if I loose concentration for a minute I could loose my whole hand or even my life. She's not stupid... (I would def think that about anyone you told me this about). College educated, professional, and often smarter than me (isn't sayin' much). she just isn't taking me seriously. She gets mad at me because I yell - because when I'm terrified I tend to raise my voice and get excited! This is about the 6th time it's happened. I have given myself time to calm down and approached her about it calmly after the fact. Trying to impress upon her that I could get seriously injured. In tonights' case - she could have been seriously injured. I just sent an email to her with a picture of some guys hand (from the internet) - after he had an accident on a table router. I'm not even sure that will do it. I'm thinking I'm going to go buy a sliding lock for the door so at least she can't open it while I'm out there... but I don't want to get startled while running a router. what would you do?

commonly - probably not. I've not really seen other folks even do it for guitar - I learned to do it when I worked as a solid surface counter top fabricator. People who buy solid surface sort of have an expectation of invisible joins so... this is how we did it. I've heard of folks using it on guitar tops... but have yet to see any tutorials so thought I'd share. I don't think I'd try this on a body because you can choke a router taking off 1/32 on 2" lumber, let alone taking that off of two sides at once. I joined my ash for the tele's above by just using a straight edge and holding the router really steady. I did some minor sanding after to remove any chatter. actually works even easier on thicker tops... but there is the issue of cutting more material... I did it on the 3/4" flamed maple for the carve top above. I generally prep the edges of both sides by trimming against a straight edge first. This way, when I get to cutting on both sides I'm removing as little as possible.