Neck angle adjustments

[Mark Riess]

Playing around with this demonstrated to me how a little change in one dimension effects a larger change in other dimensions. Newenglandluthiers.org has a webpage which helped me quantify the necessary adjustments. The previous post concludes with a photo showing the clearance at the bridge location of a straightedge placed on the centerline of the fingerboard. After adjusting the neck heel, this was the condition:

From 16/64 up to 29/64. Too much! So I set the body assembly back in the vise with some 80 grit glued to the surface where the neck joins, marked the neck with a pencil to monitor my progress, and began the short-strokes method of fitting neck to body.

When the pencil marks were gone, the measurement was 22/64. This will allow for a bridge thickness slightly more than 5/16".