Dealing with excessive negative neck angle

[tadej bratkovic]

Hey all.

Lately I had a few electric guitars with neck angle problem and I was wondering what do you do when the neck is too negative, meaning it slants backwards, so the pickups and bridge are ridiculously high to get a proper action. In fact on this particular guitar the pups won't adjust any further but it is still not enough. And it looks really silly

The guitar in question is a Squier and is my training dummy, so no further harm can be done.

What are the options to get the neck more flush/parallel to the body? The top of the body is flat of course. Should I reroute the neck pocket or reshape the heel? I am not too fond of putting shims to go positive, only the other way around.

This neck however has a heel that is a bit slanted in the nut direction, but the neck pocket is dead parallel to the rest of the body and cavities.

I would like to know how do you guys do? With or without powertools.

Thanks!

[Russell Vance]

Hi Tad,

These necks are designed with parallel heels - ie: no tilt in the woodwork angles.  Do yourself a favor and just flatten the bottom of the heel until its parallel (provided you have enough actual height left to give clearance)  and get it over with.  If you do not have machinery stick a sheet of 120 grit on a flat surface and knock yourself out (measuring often and using a basic woodwork square). 

Otherwize be prepared to get offered a dozen or so fixes which are workarounds of a fundamental problem.

Rusty.

[Donald A. Fortune]

Hey Rusty -- thats anothger thing to correct-- that I didnt think of-- too early in the morning for me to do any kind of serious thinking  -- LOL  peace- Donald

 

[tadej bratkovic]

My initial idea was just like you explained it, 120 on a granit board, then checking with calipers and squares constantly. This guitar however does not have the micro-tilt.

I was just curious if there are any special tricks to do it. Pardon for asking, can I chisel that down too if I have a heapful of material to remove?

I just hope there will never be any customers finicky about QC stickers and timestamps being sanded away on some necks :)

I really hope repairs like this will catch on, because any cheap electric can benefit from a procedure like that. Neck angle is one of my many evaluation factors, I know most owners are only concerned about action and relief, but these things work together geometrically too. I have shimmed some necks and got nothing but positive reviews, now I want to do the opposite, because a guitar with a negative angle and hardware cranked all the way up (even so much that the tremolo springs start to rub on the cavity because the block is getting out of sight), is neither a good player nor seller. But I was never the guy to refuse to work on something just because its retail price was low. I think any instrument needs some level of attention, sure I won't recommend a $300 procedure on such guitars, but if little things that get the guitar up to proper specs, can make someone really happy then I'm happy too.

[Mark Pollock]

I don't know about chiseling, but strapping the thing in a mill vise and milling or planing the heel might be a faster alternative, although chipout might be a problem. You could even devise a table saw sled to mount it too, which would really get the job done fast.

You could also use a jack plane of some kind to do the job.

Ooh, ooh! How about a rigid beam, like a 24 inch level, and you set up a surface for the beam to rest on so that you can get a consistent angle? It would stay level, and probably would get you down pretty darn fast.

[Donald A. Fortune]

Hi tade-- got a pic of this axxe??  it would be helpfull-- does the guitar have a tilt adjustment on the back of the guitar where the neck plate is??? --  other than that I would think a wedge of sorts is in line-- Peace,  Donald 

[michael mcclain]

a shim will work just as well one way as the other, the only disadvantage being it will be visable.

planing the heel potentially creates other problems.

[Andrew]

Indeed. If you wanna get picky, shim it with a shim that fits nicely, and colour the edges (I like my coloured sharpies), then finish with CA. Anything else would be a lot of work for a lower end instrument, unless the customer loves it and is picky, and will pay for the effort of a more 'correct' repair.

[michael mcclain]

it would appear that you have not determined whether the problem is an out of square neck end or neck pocket. the first solution offered assumes that the end of the neck is not square, and will accomplish nothing positive or useful if the pocket is not square, but would solve the problem if, ( big if ), the end of the neck is out of square.

 

if it is the pocket that is out of square the problem can be fixed by squaring up the pocket, creating a complementary angle om the neck end, or put in a wedge.

 

the first two are fiddly and time consuming on a guitar of this value. the third is simple, works well and would be the method of choice were I to undertake finding a solution to our problem.

[Andrew]

Its also possible the heel is simply too thick, or the pocket too shallow, or the combination of one or both of these and an angle issue. How far proud of the body does the bottom edge of the fingerboard sit when installed?

Also dont forget to double check what the depth of the screws/pilot holes will be when installed if you end up planing the heel and/or pocket.