Posted by Tres Seaver on October 4, 2009 at 12:56pm
I'm working on a build where I (deliberately) cut the slot on the neck side "lower" than the tail side, in order to get a bit of neck angle: my goal is to use a higher bridge than usual (more vibe transferred to the top). I plan to lay a 1/4" fingerboard down, tapered to fit just over the edge of the box, in order to get the frets (mostly) parallel to the angled strings.
In order to get this plan to work, I need to craft a skinny wedge between the neck and the fingerboard. It needss be about 3/16" high at the box, tapering down to nothing just at the nut (about 18 inches or so). I'd like suggestions on how to tackle fabricating such a beast. My current "best" idea is to try wood putty, but I'm not enthusiastic about the plan.
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Thanks Ted, I really appreciate that . I thought that I could, but I wanted to make sure before purchasing one to cut it up lol.I would also like to learn more about your 4 string pickups. I am a rock player for the most part but I love slide guitar. Now I know that I can't get that big Les Paul sound out of a cbg. but I think I can get a great sound out of it with some really good sounding pickups that had some umpth about them.I was looking on your site and seen that you make a humbucker style 4 string pickup. How do those things sound ? I would love to hear them.If I can't find a pickup that is for a 4 string, would a full size 57 humbucker look ok on a 4 string in your opinion of course.according to your add on the 4 string pickup it has a dark tone about it.is it a very hot pickup? or just so,so? I'm just curious Ted and love to know what you think. Your the master builder hear, I'm just a beginner lol.Thank you for your time as I know it is of great importance.Oh by the way I have been playing for almost fifty years . and am still loveing it, and guitars of all kind.Thanks again Ted
Ted Crocker said:
Sounds great Randy. Yes, you can cut down a Fender style bridge or you can just remove the 2 outside saddles. You could also get a piece of angle steel or brass and fabricate your own base for it.
Sounds great Randy. Yes, you can cut down a Fender style bridge or you can just remove the 2 outside saddles. You could also get a piece of angle steel or brass and fabricate your own base for it.
I am makeing my first cbg also.I am makeing it from oak. I glued 2 pieces of oak together to give me and 1-1/2 by 2-1/4 to give me a good thick plank to start with. I cut my angle on my neck form body to nut. and rounded the back of it useing a wood rasp.made my neck heel and it left enough at the nut end to make a nice head stock.when I was thinking of installling the neck to the body I was thinking along the gibson style with the angled neck. I set my miter saw on a 1degree angle and set the cut height I wanted at the body of the cbg.glued the neck on to body with plenty of wood glue and three wood screws into the heel.took water and cloth and cleaned up the glue that ran out and so far so good. I have a 24 fret finger board length lol. I am looking for a 4 string bridge and was wondering if one could be made useing a fender style 6 string bridge and cutting it off to give me what I want. will this work ? My fret board at the body is 2" and at the nut about an 1-1/2. any suggestions on this? thanks Randy
Just a quick followup: I ended up using Kevin's first alternative ("add a 3/16" shim to the neck, mark the profile you want it to have along the sides, and then just plane it down to the mark.") I'm really pleased with the way the fingerboard is angled: the action should stay low and even all the way up the neck.
Tres, the 'wood-working' method for this would be to simply add a 3/16" shim to the neck, mark the profile you want it to have along the sides, and then just plane it down to the mark. An 'interesting alternative' would be to make the finger-board from 1/2" stock materia and plane the taper onto it before fixing it to the neck. The 'engineering' method would be to make the shape of the neck extension, the bit that goes through the body, shaped in such a way that the neck winds-up in the position you need without using a shim. The easiest way to do this, as it is what I do, is to plan it out with a side-on-view draw on paper first and then get it right before marking out and cutting th wood.
one thing i do to get proper neck angle is to block plane the end of the neck that is in the box,[the top side of it] and it allows the neck to angle enough to get a nice action on the strings.but in this case if you did do that it would leave a gap in the front of the box under the neck which you would have to fill in some how.maybe on yer next build you could try block planing the back of the neck that is in the box. hope this helps.
Tres, I think you might be on track here with the sand/plane method but let me combine what you were thinking with what Gobi said:
Instead of the wedge, do like Gobi suggests and use a table saw with the fence angled ~ 1-2 degree or less. This would make a more uniform cut than would be sand/file/plane (I know it did for me when I needed to redo my fingerboard.)
One thing you might want to do is to cut the neck down instead of the fingerboard. This would be less noticeable in my opinion as an oak fingerboard would be darker and might show as a "mistake".
one thing I did to angle the neck back was to raise the slot for the tailpiece and cut it down flush with the lid. less noticable.
Hey here is a silly idea... Whats to say you couldn't make some scarf-like joint inside the box. Instead of ~13deg some use for headstocks, you could scarf it so that just the neck was angled 1-2 deg or so.
Auuugh, I'd have to show ya let me get a drawing of this.....
Replies
Ted Crocker said:
Thanks again, all! I will post pix soon.
By the way - I'll have the same problem on my "Inter-National" :(
scarfneckfortres.pdf
Instead of the wedge, do like Gobi suggests and use a table saw with the fence angled ~ 1-2 degree or less. This would make a more uniform cut than would be sand/file/plane (I know it did for me when I needed to redo my fingerboard.)
One thing you might want to do is to cut the neck down instead of the fingerboard. This would be less noticeable in my opinion as an oak fingerboard would be darker and might show as a "mistake".
one thing I did to angle the neck back was to raise the slot for the tailpiece and cut it down flush with the lid. less noticable.
Hey here is a silly idea... Whats to say you couldn't make some scarf-like joint inside the box. Instead of ~13deg some use for headstocks, you could scarf it so that just the neck was angled 1-2 deg or so.
Auuugh, I'd have to show ya let me get a drawing of this.....
-Wes
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