page 31
Ideally, the top and sides of your guitar are square to each
other: meeting at a 90° angle, especially at the neck block.
When they are square, little or no neck fitting should be nec-
essary on your guitar. This is because of the wide, flat, neck
heel-to-body joint, and the accurate machining of the neck
angle. It’s conceivable, however, that the neck block could be
installed out of square, or the top glued on with the
soundwell a little off center. In that case you would need to
alter the angle of the neck slightly so that the strings meet
the saddle with plenty of clearance at the hand rest, or else
“tip” the neck to align it with the centerline of the guitar.
The following is more information than you’re likely to need,
but if you happen to get into neck alignment problems, the
principles outlined here will come in handy. Use this infor-
mation to adjust the angle of the neck in any direction.
Since the top and sides at the neck block are square, the
angle of the neck in relation to the saddle is controlled by the
angle of the neck heel as it contacts the sides of the body.
Think of the end of the neck heel, where it meets the guitar
sides, as having two surfaces called “cheeks” — a treble cheek
and a bass cheek — on either side of the centered mounting
bolts.
The top edge of the cheeks is the pivot point between the
neck and body. This controls the neck angle as viewed from
the side. Removing wood from the upper part of the cheeks
will raise the neck; removing wood from the bottom will
lower it. As viewed from the front, taking wood from either
side only will move the neck in that direction.
When the neck bolts are tightened, the cheeks pull tight
against the body. Only the outer edges of the cheeks need to
make contact with the body, and it’s these edges that actu-
ally determine the neck angle
(58)
.
If the edges of the cheek need adjustment, you would first
remove the inner part of the cheeks with a chisel and leave a
flat untouched area of about 1/8" to 3/16" wide around the
outer edges of the bass side, treble side, and bottom of the
cheeks. After undercutting the cheeks this way, it’s easy to
remove a little wood from the outer contact edges to adjust
the neck alignment.
To make an adjustment, first mark the outer (contact) edges
of the cheeks with a pencil. Using a sharp chisel, remove
wood from the remaining inner area up to the bolts. Be care-
ful not to ruin your chisel when paring wood away from the
two neck bolts!
It’s important to note that removing wood from the upper
part of the neck cheek edges will not only raise the neck, but
will also move the neck toward the bridge slightly. If the 12th
fret moves toward the bridge the intonation will sharpen:
this is a good reason for taking the option of checking the
neck’s fit before installing the fingerboard. (See “Appendix 2:
Intonation check,” on page 34).
Appendix 1: Neck-fitting details
The “cheeks” of the neck heel set the neck angle
58.
