Firebird Neck Angle

[kipdurran]

Good day folks,

I am starting a Firebird build. I have a nice blank glued up made of 5 pieces with the center being maple, then walnut then mahogany for the outsides.

I have some templates from Guitar Templates.com which are nice but do not include a profile template of the body/neck so I will have to make one as I wish to use a router table or Robo sander to do the rough profiling of the neck, heel and headstock and to set the angle of the neck with respect to the body.

I have a couple of plans, one from JAG Guitars that I bought off of Etsy, and another free one that I downloaded. All of these are slightly varied in dimensions. The JAG plans are based upon a 24.562 scale and the free plans are for a 24.75 scale. I also contacted Guitar Templates and they told me that their templates are based upon a 24.75 scale.

The JAG plans appear to be a neck through but the other plan is a set neck and has some subtle differences in the neck to body area.

My main questions is neck angle. I have seen different recommendations anywhere from 1.75 to 4 degrees.

I have a Faber ABR-1 bridge (with thumbscrews .6 inches in height) and planning 24.75 scale.

From Tundra Man neck angle calculator:

With a scale length of 24.75 Inches (628.65 millimeters) and the neck joining the body at the 19th fret, the bridge should be located 8.269 Inches (210.024 millimeters) from the point of the neck join.
The string 9.525 at the bridge is 0.375 Inches (9.525 millimeters) higher than where the neck joins the body.
Therefore, the neck angle should be set at 2.597 degrees for proper string action.


Does 2.6 degrees sound reasonable?

I am assuming that the angle changes right at the end of the fretboard.

What methods do you all use to profile the neck/body? My bandsaw is only a 9 inch Delta benchtop so not real great for this, hence the desire for a template to use the router table or Robo sander.

How have y'all done this part of the build?

Thanks,

Steve

​

 

[ARandall]

Firebirds have the same sort of setup as a V or SG - a long neck mating at the 20th fret or so but level with the top of the slab body. And for the most part an angle of 2.5 degrees works well with these.
The only difference might come if you choose a bridge that is thicker in profile than a normal TOM....then you might find a need for more angle so the strings sit high enough to allow for downward adjustment.

If you are making the neckthru version, then you really do need to have a decent cutting device, and then something to accurately true the fretboard plane so it is absolutely straight. Typically without spending a lot of money on huge wood, a blank deep enough to contain both neck angle and then headstock tiltback will not have a massive amount of room for error/recutting

 

[pshupe]

Just do the math. I do all my guitar drawings in CAD and make sure the bridge is at the right height. I think mine is about 2.7 degrees.

You could check out my build thread. I laminated the neck through first and then cut the head stock angle and neck angle while it was only about 4" wide. You have to be careful if you want to use a Maestro vibrola as the bridge height should be in the higher range to have room for the spring steel.

Cheers Peter.

 

[Ripthorn]

For flat top Gibson scale guitars with something like a TOM or wraparound bridge, 2.5 degrees is pretty standard for me. I've done that with multiple builds.

 

[kipdurran]

Thanks for the answers.

I will go with about 2.5-3 degrees. I will mock it up on profile with the bridge and an old fretted fingerboard that I have to double check it.

I had thought about a Maestro but have not committed to that . I am a sucker for a Bigsby (I have 2 guitars including the goldtop LP I built a couple of years agothat are set up with Bigsbys). I don't use them much in my style of playing but they just look plain cool.

I am concerned about tuning stability with the Maestro.

I think I will build it stop tail for now and I can also convert if I want to as long as the bridge height is high enough (I have paid attention to Peter's thread).

Peace.

 

[kipdurran]

Well, here is an update. I think that I am in the same boat that Peter was. I don't think that I built in enough neck angle for the Maestro.

The bridge is actually a bit high on the wooden shim and will probably sit a bit lower.

Does that look like enough break angle?

 

[LtDave32]

Peter and I both had issues with this.vThe modern aftermarket vibrato isn't engineered the same as the old Maesro ones. Too much neck angle = strings too high, but vibrato works. Lesser angle = string height good, vibrato doesn't work. Original had 3 shallow wafers where the back of the unit rested on the body top, controlling the rocker spring height. Not the same as today..

 

[kipdurran]

So, some good news. I took the guitar over to Mike Lull's here in Seattle and asked them to look at it and give me an opinion and after measuring it out they thought it would work. So I went ahead and mounted the Maestro and indeed, there is enough break angle! Whew!

 

[kipdurran]

Final coat of Timbermate tonight and then hopefully nitro soon. I think a light tobacco burst.

 

[kipdurran]

Just a little update. 6 coats on now but I have some stupid fish eye to deal with. Argghh. Just above the volute and on the back at the very bottom.

I will probably have to sand back those areas and re-spray.