A new challenge

[Highlander]

Coming along nicely...

[Basvarken]

Another hurdle taken; the headstock faceplate and inlays.

I ordered a very thin Mother of Pearl sheet at a company from Australia
www.mopsupplies.com

And I bought an ebony face plate form the guy who  is one of the teachers at the course.

Then I sent my design for the name and logo to a guy who is a customer of my Graphic Design studio.
He is a prototyping engineer  with a CNC machine.
www.skillbizz.com (we designed his logo)

So we spent an evening at the CNC machine trying to get the name cut out of the m.o.p.
But this stuff is so incredibly brittle it kept breaking before we cut one single character.

In the end we just engraved the characters and logo slightly in the m.o.p sheet
And at home I cut it -or rather punctured it- out. It still did break at a few places but I managed to put it together when I placed it in the very shallow chambers we engraved in the ebony.









(Brooks is a translation from my surname Van Den Broek) 

[Highlander]

Nice...

(boo... hiss... he bottled out of a flying pigoletto... )

[Lightyear]

Looks great!

[Freuds_Cat]

Very tricky job. Looking good Rob.

[Iome]

Hey Rob, nice work, i've got a question: due to the tune o matic bridge, are you mounting the neck to the body with an angle between the two or are you going straight like on a 7ender?

[Basvarken]

The neck will be glued into the the body under an angle. Just like the Gibson Les Paul Bass.

[Iome]

Thanks, are there any way to calculate the angle or is there a standard?
Sorry to bother you with all these questions, but after finishing the Fenderbird i'm going to start on a 32" scale Les Paul and would love to use a TOM bridge.

Cant wait to hear that mudbucker in the bridge position

[Basvarken]

I eyeballed it... Calculated the position of the bridge, then figured out the height of the bridge and compared it to my own Gibson Les Paul Bass. Next I used a long ruler to check the angle.

I made a template for the neckpocket and I placed it under the estimated angle. Then the router just followed that angle.
After that I worked the part of the neck that goes into the body to the precise height.

I'm sure there are more professional ways to do it. But this seemed to work for me 

[drbassman]

I use this web site4.  It really works!  Otherwise, I make mock ups or templates.

[Lightyear]

I use this web site4.  It really works!  Otherwise, I make mock ups or templates.

Uh, got a linky?

[sniper]

a descending angle (like in downgrades when i was driving is always in a percentage) ergo a 5% grade goes down 5 feet every 100 feet. trains very rarely climb more than a 2.5 degree grades. truck negotiate 5 to 7% grades on a regular basis although some can really make your backside pucker when you are trying to keep 80,000 lbs from becoming a runaway. i have managed to get down some grades so fast i had to kick it out of gear and i was geared out at 127 mph in my little Mack and 110 mph in my blue Peterbilt.

a neck angle can be calculated in the same manner. a 31.5" scale at 1 percent would be a .315" vertical drop or 1%. i would assume one would measure from the bridge and assume it being the level point.

a 2.5 percent drop would be 2.5 x .315 or .7825" from vertical off the hieght of the bridge to the level of the nut assuming of course the strings are a common height from said nut.

lay it out plugging in your scale length. level is level regaredless if it is measured at your bridge or off the body surface and don't drive trucks down your fretboard unless they are Matchbox or Hotwheels trucks with Jake Brakes.

get a conversion program and change percent to degrees.

i downloaded a convert program called "convert" made in 98, version 4.0.6.0  that is actually old dos programming. it comes in handy.

i can email it to you if you send me your addy via email.

FWIW a 2.5 degree angle is about a 2.77778 percent degree grade.

[PeterB]

I love the logo Rob, very nice! 

[drbassman]

Uh, got a linky?

Opps, I forgot!!!  Here.........  http://www.tundraman.com/Guitars/NeckAngle/Index.cfm

[dadagoboi]

Opps, I forgot!!!  Here.........  http://www.tundraman.com/Guitars/NeckAngle/Index.cfm

Many Thanks!  Some nice builds.