Neck angle

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Jeff Kittren
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Joined: Fri Jul 15, 2016 1:51 pm

Neck angle

Post by Jeff Kittren »

I have a neck angle of 8.85 on an SG style I'm building. What would
> be the mm measurement at the center of the bridge (to the body of
> the guitar) ?? do you know of a degree to mm height calculator? I
> used Tundramans neck angle calculator but it does not let you
> convert neck angle to mm height. Can you help?? Thank you
>
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Dave Weir
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Re: Neck angle

Post by Dave Weir »

Seems like you need more data. How high is the neck above the body at a particular point, say the 22nd fret?
What is the scale length? What the the range of height adjustment in the bridge. Assuming a straight neck, where do you want the action to be when the bridge is in the center of the range. I think if you have all that, the rest is trigonometry.
Gordon Bellerose
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Location: Edmonton AB. Canada

Re: Neck angle

Post by Gordon Bellerose »

Yep. That angle does seem a bit steep.
With the neck installed, lay a straight edge on top of the frets, sticking out over where the bridge will be.
The bottom of the straightedge should be about where the lowest adjustment point on your bridge is.

As Dave said, there is a lot of information missing, that we would need to help.
I need your help. I can't possibly make all the mistakes myself!
Brian Evans
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Location: Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia

Re: Neck angle

Post by Brian Evans »

My thought was "8.85 whats, surely not degrees". And then I thought "you have an SG in the basement, why not go down and look at it". So I did. It is a 1998 Epiphone SG whatever, the top of their line one with the Bigsby on it, made in Korea and I once looked up that the factory that made it won the Gibson award for best quality in 1998. So there you go. $225 in a punk record shop in Hamilton, used, on a hot day in July.

Neck angle is 2.25 degrees. Bridge height (action set quite low but plays great) is a wee tad under 5/8". Call it 15.5mm and it is your typical tune-o-matic bridge. My first ever good guitar was a 1968 SG with Vibrola. God only knows why I sold it. Probably to pay for a girlfriend... :(
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Ryan Mazzocco
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Re: Neck angle

Post by Ryan Mazzocco »

Brian Evans wrote:My first ever good guitar was a 1968 SG with Vibrola. God only knows why I sold it. Probably to pay for a girlfriend... :(
;) I hope she was worth it.
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Dan Smith
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Re: Neck angle

Post by Dan Smith »

Jeff,
For what it's worth, i'm building a couple of SG"s.
One has a TOM roller bridge, the other has a fixed intonation JR style bridge.
The end of the fretboards are above the flat part of the body about 1/32".
I did a mockup and used a bevel gauge to copy the angle.
I marked the where the end of the fretboard would be on the body, and placed my bridge where it should be located on the body based on scale length. I put a thin piece of wood under the bridge to simulate the thumbscrews. I placed the fretboard onto the body. I put a straight edge from the end of the fretboard to one of the middle bridge saddles and copied the angle with a bevel gauge.
My protractor shows about 3 degrees on both, but I don't know how accurate it is.
After I fretted the board and glued the neck in, the angle looks just right. I had to raise the bridge slightly to account for the fret height and clearance.
Dan
Ever-body was kung fu fight-in,
Them kids was fast as light-nin.
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