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So here’s the most critical part……the NECK ANGLE.

We need to get the neck mounted not only on the right angle to the body but parallel with the body’s centre line. So considering the fretboard will be roughly 7mm thick, and the saddle will be roughly 9.5mm, I made up a couple of spacers at those thicknesses and placed them on the body. I then put a straight-edge resting on them to get the angle and locked it in with my angle tool ($4.95 at any hardware store).

So then that measurement needed to be transferred to the neck, as below. What I also did, from reading different peoples’ blogs online was cut the heel portion of the neck at a slight angle towards the centre line so the sides of the butt end of the neck would meet the body as tightly as possible.

So here I’ve transferred the angle from my angle tool onto the bandsaw. I’ll line it up as closely as possible at this point because this could destroy the whole thing! I put this part off for so long because I was terrified to throw away *yet another* neck, but all in all it actually worked out pretty well. If the angle is off horizontally the headstock would be off the centre line. If the angle is off vertically, the string action will be too low (possibly even touch the frets) in the higher fret range.

So it turned out really well, despite my worrying. When lined up on the centre line of the body, the headstock is tilted 1/32″ to the left. I’d say that’s quite manageable. Next time we’ll bolt the neck to the body! Yay!

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