Lots of videos and attention on building back angle into your Guitars.

What success have you had and is the extra effort worth it? I have been struggling with trying to incorporate it into two recent builds and just go back to a level neck. Also, when attaching neck in box with blocks at each end, is it best to keep both the same height? Lots of questions, trying to fine tune the process

thanks

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Hi Brent, the back angle or neck set is important in determining the bridge height. This will give more or less break angle of the strings over the bridge, depending on the back angle. More or less break angle equals more or less loading [downward pressure] onto the top. Depending on how well the top is built this loading contributes a lot to volume and tone.

Again I'm talking stringed instruments in general, but these things also apply to CBG's, after all it is a stringed instrument. 

As I have stated in the past I do not glue in my necks, either through necks or otherwise, so that I have the option to change the neck set.

If you draw a side on plan to scale of your proposed instrument you can plan the bridge, string height and neck set. Blocks of different heights will give the neck the desired set. Blocks the same height will give no back set.

I don't think there is any extra effort in doing a neck set, not in a CBG anyway.

Taff 

One or two degrees of back angle on the neck (I.e. the angle between the fret board and the box top) will allow the bridge to be high enough to produce a good break angle over it while also allowing the strings to stay closer to the fret board up toward the 12th fret and higher. This is important if you are building a fretted instrument and want to have low action all the way up the neck. Without back angle the strings will tend to get farther from the fret board as you move from the nut toward the bridge (assuming you set up a good break angle over the bridge).

In the case of a non-fretted instrument ( a slider), the distance between strings and the fret board becomes significantly less important  than on an instrument on which you intend to finger notes.

I've built box guitars both with and without back angle. I have to admit that back angle is a very effective way to have good bridge height and low action over the frets. Building back angle into your neck can be accomplished in a number of ways:

Cut a 1~2 degree angle in the stepped section of your neck (the part with the heel and inside the box) before you glue the actual neck to this piece. This is actually pretty easy with a table or band saw and provides the needed back angle.

Another way is to put a spacer block under the part of the neck closest to the bottom of the guitar. This effectively "tilts" the neck back to achieve your back angle. It doesn't take much of a spacer to get a 1 degree angle.

After building a number of instruments both with and without back angle, I lean toward thinking it is not really that important on our box guitars unless we are going for really low action across the entire length of the neck.

Since I've gradually become more and more a slide player, I don't bother with back angle on any of my sliders.

It's probably worth your time to build at least one instrument with back angle so you can get a first hand look and feel what what this will accomplish for your builds and your playing. You're learn something not matter how it works out.

Hi again Brent, sorry to be a pain but I just watched a bit of the video Brian linked to and thought I had to make a comment. The part I watched was the builder demonstrating the fit of the neck shaft under the top. It looked to me that he was suggesting attaching the neck to the top. I would recommend not doing this if you are looking for the best output from your CBG.

Its been discussed many times on here. But just to recap, if you are looking for a flexible responsive top don't glue a chunk of wood to the inside of it. You can still do as he suggests but keep the top free to vibrate.

Taff

He actually attaches his necks to the bottom part of the box, not the top? He just made another video better explaining the back angle: 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kfUMnYMZ2dU&t=0s

Hi BrianQ, thanks for that. The back also plays a part in sound production too, he might have to rethink that one as well ha ha. 

To proove that point, the other day a mate played a new build of mine commenting that it did not sound as good as his - I built that too - , I showed him it had a large hole in the back - access to the springs - I replaced the tight fitting back panel and the sound improved noticeably.

Also guitarists that are aware of this will hold the guitar back away from their body whilst playing.

Taff

Just to confirm Taffy's comment.

One of my very first builds, a 3-string slider with a larger Puch box sounded significantly different if you held it away from your body, versus resting the back of the box on my chest. The sound was much "fuller" with the guitar held away from the body so the bottom of the box could vibrate and not be dampened by body contact.

Interesting acoustic stuff.

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