So Anyway...

RVA said:
So anyway, the neck is in and straight. Whew! That is always a stressful process of lining up the hardware
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Ray, this is great news.

I totally think about one of the potentially trickiest parts of a guitar build, where I could see myself or others mucking up "something" in the process of shaping the body, routing for the neck, lining up holes and drilling, actually getting the neck dead centered in the body through to the center of the head stock, mounting tailpieces, bridges etc with the precise scale length and getting everything perfect without any glitches to remedy.

SO glad this beauty is not fighting you.
 
chilipeppermaniac said:
Ray, this is great news.

I totally think about one of the potentially trickiest parts of a guitar build, where I could see myself or others mucking up "something" in the process of shaping the body, routing for the neck, lining up holes and drilling, actually getting the neck dead centered in the body through to the center of the head stock, mounting tailpieces, bridges etc with the precise scale length and getting everything perfect without any glitches to remedy.

SO glad this beauty is not fighting you.
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Whenever I contemplated just how do Gibson, Fender or custom builders align the body and neck and not LOSE their reference lines marking center lines throughout the body especially when not only in one plane the face of the guitar has the basic shape, but in the other plane it has depth of curves too lik ea LP or Core PRS does. Not a slab type body face such as a Tele or Strat or some PRS SE type bodies that are dead flat.

I am thinking, part of the battle is a template for when the body "blank" is still square on all sides. Establish reference points at that time and maybe even locate and pre drill very small holes for ref points on things such as the bridge and tail piece. I can see where controls would be easiest to locate and drill after contours done, but not stuff like neck pockets, Floyd routs, Pickup placements etc.

If I were to be building a guitar, I likely would have to do a ton of trial and error procedures, fab up jigs and practice steps on junk wood and see what works or doesn't before I put a tool to the "good stuff"

Neck alignment and angles in relation to body,bridge, string path is a whole other ball of wax to perfect for my level of 0 experience getting things to the best specs. Neck set angle nut depths etc............. All the stuff that make a good or bad/difficult setup.
 
As @jtcnj knows, even Jackson's builders of my RR3 V over in Japan could not get the neck and neck in the pocket set with the 4 screw/back plate system like Fender's, perfectly. The neck was fairly tight in there, but would find it's way off to one side once string tension was applied. The high or low E would run too close to the neck edge. I wound up installing neck inserts and slightly larger diameter bolts once I set neck straight.
 
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RVA said:
Thanks Johnny. Yes, this will get a wrap around. I have been advised that a 3 degree neck angle should do the trick. We shall see!!
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Ray, from @Robert Herndon's builds, numerous talks about specs, neck and head stock angles, and the postings of adrian, sgjohn, gball, Bdon etc. IIRC, 3-5 degrees is customary for Gib/Epi style necks. Of course, these are glue in necks.

If I picture things right if one is to do a bolt in Gibson style 3x3 neck into a neck pocket things will be slightly different than a Fender body to Fender Type bolt in neck. My guess is to set a bolt in 3x3 neck, the actual typical tenon area will have to have that 3 degree angle on it.

Not to say I am an expert at neck to body building/ assembly, but does it seem like it would be wise to start at the lowest angle needed such as a 3 degree. Mount the neck Tuners, nut and all, test mount the bridge and tailpiece, and test fit a high and low E string close to tension and see how the clearance of strings to the neck/frets is? Adjust things within bridge adjustability parameters, and if it seems way high or something then one can always increase the tenon angle to 4 degrees, 5 degrees etc till it fits perfectly.

What say you guys?
 
PS, You could always try to mock up various necks with similar dimensions as your " Good Neck" but with varying angles such as 3-4 5 degree and do the test too. DO your guesswork on sacrificial material that won't cost ya a valuable finished neck.

Pretty sure SGJohn can make my picture more clear since he has built necks and of course bodies from scratch.
If I am not mistaken, have you only made Bodies and then installed "company" made and sourced necks? @RVA
 
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Sp8ctre said:
It's tomorrow...spill the beans!
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If I spilled the beans, I'd have to clean them up. I'm still waiting to see if what I'm expecting has arrived as scheduled.

Tic, tic, tic...


FYI Chris, you were the 1st person on this forum to know about what happened 3 years ago. This is about to come into fruition and please don't spill any beans, I will when the time is right. I think you already have a pretty good idea as to what this is about. (y)
 
WavMixer said:
If I spilled the beans, I'd have to clean them up. I'm still waiting to see if what I'm expecting has arrived as scheduled.

Tic, tic, tic...


FYI Chris, you were the 1st person on this forum to know about what happened 3 years ago. This is about to come into fruition and please don't spill any beans, I will when the time is right. I think you already have a pretty good idea as to what this is about. (y)
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Not my beans to spill. I was, however, happy to help you along with this when you asked...
 
Sp8ctre said:
Not my beans to spill. I was, however, happy to help you along with this when you asked...
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Your help was much appreciated as was Ray's help. Your assistance never came into play, however I do greatly appreciate your support throughout the entire ordeal. Sometimes a guy just needs another guy to talk to. Thank you for lending me your ears!
 
chilipeppermaniac said:
PS, You could always try to mock up various necks with similar dimensions as your " Good Neck" but with varying angles such as 3-4 5 degree and do the test too. DO your guesswork on sacrificial material that won't cost ya a valuable finished neck.

Pretty sure SGJohn can make my picture more clear since he has built necks and of course bodies from scratch.
If I am not mistaken, have you only made Bodies and then installed "company" made and sourced necks? @RVA
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I have everything drawn and trigged out before starting. If the angle goes wrong while milling, or anything else seems to change on the way, I re-trig everything. Even though I'll measure something six times, I'll still mess up location for intonation, and have to fudge things a bit. It would be easier if I could build one on a CNC machine like Fender or Gibson. But then it wouldn't be hand made. It would be like any other kit.
 
SG John said:
I have everything drawn and trigged out before starting. If the angle goes wrong while milling, or anything else seems to change on the way, I re-trig everything. Even though I'll measure something six times, I'll still mess up location for intonation, and have to fudge things a bit. It would be easier if I could build one on a CNC machine like Fender or Gibson. But then it wouldn't be hand made. It would be like any other kit.
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@SG John, can you explain trig?
 
Also @SG John, school me if you can ( general gist of things is fine)

Let's say I am at a point where I have a body all shaped and the rout cut in for the neck pocket and pickup routs. Now it is time to fab up the neck from a block of wood. I am venturing to guess we start with a larger depth " stick" in order to fab up the headstock and tenon angles in order to shape the front and back of the neck in between these 2 areas.

Of course, like I said, my guess on how-to would be to figure on cutting the angle on the tenon in order to yield the 3-5* degree angle once inserted in the mortise.

What say you?
 
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