Aaron, I used an online trig calculator to calculate the angle for the neck in order to get the angle. On a carved top mandolin this angle is about 6 degrees or so, but on a cigarbox mandolin 3 to 4 degrees is more in order. I've done 5 degrees, but the bridge was a little bit high. This neck was bolt on, but I'm now using a slotted neck type of design where the sides fit into a slot into the neck, and just use a larger neck block. This really locks in the neck. I'm currently working on a cigarbox resonator mandolin using this design. So I'll post a picture of what I mean. I made a jig for my tablesaw that lets me angle the neck slots, which makes this easy to do. I also am doing the tailblock like this to lock that into place - I had a tailpiece pop off when I just screwed it into the side at the back of the box...
I made the neck from scratch. I've made about six carved-top mandolins, F5 and A5 designs. So pretty much followed the same process for making the neck. It was a bolt-on neck using those furniture lag/bolts.
Comments