# Neck Through Guitar



## Junior24xx (May 15, 2009)

Hi folks, 
New here and this is my first post. I've built and acoustic and a strat style guitar. I would really like to make a neck through as my next project. I was wondering if someone could explain to me how I get the neck to pitch correctly.
Thanks


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## buddroyce (Feb 12, 2008)

Getting the neck angle right isn't that hard. It really does depend on what kind of bridge you're using. You figure it out you basically need to draw out a few lines on the side of the neck blank.

The first line goes straight across and that line will be the top of your body. Add the thickness of your fretboard as another line above the body. Figure out where the 16th fret is going to be and mark that point. Then on the spot where you plan on mounting the bridge, figure out how high the bridge will be. From that point draw another line from the top of the bridge right through the spot where you marked as the 16th fret. That last line is your neck angle. Between frets 16-24 you'll need to make a shim for the fretboard to sit on.

If you want to do a neck through the half-assed easy way, just to your neck angle straight and then recess the bridge. Believe it or not, there are A LOT of builders/companies that do thier guitars the half assed way. You can always tell because in order for the guitar to play right with low action you need to recess the bridge. In fact, if you ever see anyone with a Tune-o-matic type bridge that's recessed, it's usually an indicatin that they don't really know how to properly build a neck through.

Doing the neck angle with the 16th fret as a reference was taught to me by Neal Moser (Moser Custom Shop/BC Rich). So I know this method is a tried and true method. The hardest part is actually getting the shim right. You can probably get away with not having a shim if you cut the shim as part of the neck.


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