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Step 6Neck Placement and Center Line
Now that we have our basic blank body, we need to figure out where we will place the hardware and pickups, starting with the neck.
The neck has to be straight, and on a slight angle so that the raised bridge will set the string height ("action") evenly along the length of the fretboard. On the neck there is a flat part where it will connect to the guitar, so place the neck on top of the guitar to try and get a feel for how far into the guitar it should extend. Mark this on the wood with a pencil.
Next, place the neck on the table next to the body, and line it up as straight as you can with the body. Take a long ruler and lay it from the middle of the nut* of the guitar through the center of the last fret marker dot on the fretboard. Carefully mark the line that is going through the middle of the guitar. This will be our center line, to make sure all the hardware and strings will be straight down the neck.
*The nut is the small plastic piece with grooves in it for strings to go in at the end of the neck.
Place the neck back on the wood with it aligned straight with the center line, and squared with the depth line we marked earlier. Trace around the neck contour with a pencil. This will be our milling guide.
Now, we need to determine the angle of the neck. To do this, we will need a 1:1 scale drawing of the guitar from a side angle. First, draw an equivalent length and thickness rectangle to represent the body. Measure the length of the whole neck from the center of the nut to the very end, and draw a rectangle to represent that, overlapping into the body rectangle by the amount we determined they would overlap earlier.
There is mathematical significance to the open string length and the 12th fret length: it divides the string in half. That is to say, the distance from the nut to the middle of the 12th fret is the same as the distance from the middle of the 12th fret to the bridge. This is true for all guitars. Measure this distance on your neck and write it down.
Assemble the guitar bridge and place it on the paper to get a feel for how high it will sit. Tune-o-matic bridges are on screw mounts to their height can be adjusted, so set them to about medium height. Mark the height this will put the top of the bridge at on the paper.
Now, using a long ruler, draw a line from where the nut would be to the height of the bridge. This line represents the strings. We want the neck to angle along with the strings just like this. Using a protractor, measure the angle between the bridge and the strings. It should be something like 88 or 87 degrees. 90 degrees - 88 degrees = a 2 degree slope is required on the neck pocket. Please take a look at the image below if you are having a hard time understanding the angles.
Double-check your components are perpendicular to the center line, and squarely centered along it. If all is good, move on to Step 7!
The neck has to be straight, and on a slight angle so that the raised bridge will set the string height ("action") evenly along the length of the fretboard. On the neck there is a flat part where it will connect to the guitar, so place the neck on top of the guitar to try and get a feel for how far into the guitar it should extend. Mark this on the wood with a pencil.
Next, place the neck on the table next to the body, and line it up as straight as you can with the body. Take a long ruler and lay it from the middle of the nut* of the guitar through the center of the last fret marker dot on the fretboard. Carefully mark the line that is going through the middle of the guitar. This will be our center line, to make sure all the hardware and strings will be straight down the neck.
*The nut is the small plastic piece with grooves in it for strings to go in at the end of the neck.
Place the neck back on the wood with it aligned straight with the center line, and squared with the depth line we marked earlier. Trace around the neck contour with a pencil. This will be our milling guide.
Now, we need to determine the angle of the neck. To do this, we will need a 1:1 scale drawing of the guitar from a side angle. First, draw an equivalent length and thickness rectangle to represent the body. Measure the length of the whole neck from the center of the nut to the very end, and draw a rectangle to represent that, overlapping into the body rectangle by the amount we determined they would overlap earlier.
There is mathematical significance to the open string length and the 12th fret length: it divides the string in half. That is to say, the distance from the nut to the middle of the 12th fret is the same as the distance from the middle of the 12th fret to the bridge. This is true for all guitars. Measure this distance on your neck and write it down.
Assemble the guitar bridge and place it on the paper to get a feel for how high it will sit. Tune-o-matic bridges are on screw mounts to their height can be adjusted, so set them to about medium height. Mark the height this will put the top of the bridge at on the paper.
Now, using a long ruler, draw a line from where the nut would be to the height of the bridge. This line represents the strings. We want the neck to angle along with the strings just like this. Using a protractor, measure the angle between the bridge and the strings. It should be something like 88 or 87 degrees. 90 degrees - 88 degrees = a 2 degree slope is required on the neck pocket. Please take a look at the image below if you are having a hard time understanding the angles.
Double-check your components are perpendicular to the center line, and squarely centered along it. If all is good, move on to Step 7!
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