Neck Angle

[Darryl]

Hi all,

After months of procrastinating, I've returned to my home-build and made some good progress in recent weeks. I've now reached the critical stage of attaching the neck and would like some guidance on neck angle.

I've done some reading online about this, and it seems that I should set the neck at whatever angle is necessary to achieve the right action, but most of what I've read is focussed on conventional acoustic guitars. As it stands, I've got a 1.5 degree angle, so will have to add a wedge beneath the fingerboard 'ski-jump' if I keep this. I've also read (here) that I should aim for a low break angle to limit pressure on the cone. 

I'm using a 25" scale length and I've made this a bolt-on neck. The truss rod access is from the headstock.

Any advice or opinions would be great.

Many thanks!

[pete1951]

I have made a few resonator guitars (mostly conversions of broken standard acoustics) and the neck angle was determined by the relationship between the tailpiece and cover plate. If the tailpiece sits very high on the cover plate there is little break angle over the bridge then the neck has to be angled more than ‘standard’ to compensate. If the cover plate is unusually high (or the tailpiece sits very low down) then the neck angle will be less. I copied the angle over the bridge on an existing good sounding National, but as I used odd cover plates ( some home made) and odd necks each was slightly different.
Sorry not to have an easy answer.
Pete

Also something I think about is string gauge. I have made a couple of res-electrics which will always have light strings, on these I increased the angle slightly to give the same pressure on the bridge as a heavy set.

[Darryl]

Thanks for this, Pete. I've yet to buy the cover plate so will wait until I have one before proceeding. In the meantime I can play with the fingerboard.

Thanks again,

Darryl

[pete1951]

Hopefully someone with more experience of making from scratch will post and give you a better idea than me.
Pete

[Darryl]

Apr 4, 2022 18:02:05 GMT pete1951 said:

Hopefully someone with more experience of making from scratch will post and give you a better idea than me.
Pete

I wouldn't hold your breath, Pete. I think I offended the community by building it out of solid timber instead of a laminate. (I'd already bought the materials before I found out that resos work on different mechanical and acoustic principles to conventional guitars.)
Thanks for your advice. The next few steps will involve a lot of trial and error. 

[bryanbradfield]

Some resos are built from solid woods, some from laminates. Different tones and volumes. Horses for courses.

[pete1951]

I think I posted on the original thread that one of my favourite sounding resos is a faux-reso made of solid timber that I squeezed a cone into. As long as the build is solid and stiff it will have a voice, possibly a great one.......time will tell, fingers crossed.
Pete

[Darryl]

Apr 7, 2022 6:34:34 GMT pete1951 said:

I think I posted on the original thread that one of my favourite sounding resos is a faux-reso made of solid timber that I squeezed a cone into. As long as the build is solid and stiff it will have a voice, possibly a great one.......time will tell, fingers crossed.
Pete

Thanks, Pete. 

As you say - fingers crossed. I definitely learned a lot from the materials discussion, including Michael's 'speaker cabinet' analogy. I've made the soundbox a bit more robust for that very reason. (See photo below. I also added birch sound posts between the tone ring and the bracing.)

As an aside (and returning to the original topic), I've ordered the cover plate now so will wait a few weeks for that to arrive before messing around with the neck angle. I can concentrate of the fingerboard in the meantime. 

Darryl