PL29 Parlor

[ruby@magpage.com]

Rusty
I always have problems getting pictures in - they show up in the wrong order or not at all. Here is the first one showing how the second one was derived:

[Zen]

Thanks for that, I have built one 28' jig like this but seems like I would need a jig for every radius I use and it takes time to do. I haven't tried using it yet

:file:///C:/Users/Kevin/Desktop/Building%20a%20Brace%20Arching%20Jig.htm


also this : http://gicl.cs.drexel.edu/people/sevy/l ... ching.html


What I badly need is some radius dishes and I really have to figure out how to do them.

Thanks again
Rusty

[Zen]

Ruby @ ahh I see now,, I found your post and the pictures in that older posting--very interesting !!

Thanks
Rusty

[Zen]

Just a quick up date on my parlour build. Its a pre serviced scott antes plan from lmi.
Everything seemed to be going well--probably too well--but now I have hit a brick wall.
So I am at this stage right now. I have closed the box, tried experimenting with epoxy as a pore filler, got my binding all done. shaped the fingerboard and put in the dots etc,
I now find that when I bolt on the neck the bolts pull the top of the neck down into the mortise by about 1/16th so its no longer level with the top of the body
First question is: can I enlarge the holes to allow the neck plane back up level and what would I then use to fill the bottom of the holes to keep the bolts tight ?

If i can do that then that would solve my first problem

But then comes the big one. Before I actually bolted on the neck and found the problem above I was just pushing the neck in manually to try for fit, and keeping it level with the top. I laid my fretboard on top and then a straight edge on top again to around where the bridge will be placed. But, I found that the straight edge comes to only about half way up on the bridge . I will post a few pics to try to explain.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

First off when you have your fretboard attached to the neck, the fretboard will not allow the neck to drop below the surface of your top, so you are fine until you assembled and trial fitting the neck with the fretboard to the body.
Now your angle does look wrong. Do you have your square flat against the side at neck end, and that is the angle you get across your top?

Kevin

[Zen]

I have moved on a little Kevin since posting that and heres the state of play now. I dont have the fret board glued on yet and was only using it to get the neck angle sorted out.
My straight edge was not kissing the top of the bridge when laid across the fretboard which points to the heel needing to tilt back a little and the pic here shows what i need to be doing. I am unsure about exactly where to remove material from but my understanding of it is to remove some from the areas marked with the Xs and stay inside the line but taper in towards the inside ? Would that be correct ?

And then I need to know how much material to remove from the heel end or do i keep taking small increments off all the way across the end until the neck tilts back enough to let the straight edge go right over the bridge.

[justrfb]

Hello Zen,
I will offer from my experience and I am sure others will follow... I just went through the neck angle issue with John Hall. He helped me out greatly and my son Willie's guitar is now perfect. First off, from your picture with removing material from the inside of the cheeks, I would leave a little more material on the mating surface and yes, taper into the tenon. I would split the distance as opposed to leaving just a little bit on the mating surface. Also, don't cut away the bottom portion of the neck heel. It appears that you are carrying the line to trim material down the cheeks and right through the heel. You want material left on the bottom of the heel to mate with the guitar body.
Small increments... Very small increments... Adjusting the neck angle is just that, an adjustment. Watch John Hall's YouTube videos. He demonstrates exactly how to sand off small amounts till the neck angle is perfect. I hope this information helps you and is clear. Good luck and it is looking real nice...

Sincerely,
Rich

[Zen]

Thanks for that Rich, I will search out john/s videos on that and probably should have done so before now, Actually i did search last night but couldn't find what i was after unfortunately. And I may have already taken off that material you speak of at the bottom of the heel....But , my thinking was that how could I tilt the neck back if there was too much material at the bottom of the heel stopping it tilting ?

Now, I am getting really frustrated at this stage with the task of getting this angle correct.

One minute I have it close to how i think it should be--but next minute it looks awful and i have skewed the angle so that no matter how much I seem to remove I just cannot get it so that the straight edge clears the top of the bridge position. Its at a delicate stage right now so i think the best thing to do is Stop !!

I will find the video and see if it helps.

Thanks again for your help--much appreciated

[johnnparchem]

The inside area as marked by your Xes are cleared to make it easier to trim the correct angle into the neck cheeks, also it is really easy while changing the neck angle to leave the area close to the tenon a little high so that the neck does not seat properly. I have looked at your pictures and it looked like you were very close. You had a small gap near the heal joint but you were also low to the bridge. That means the angle on the top looks correct and you just need the neck angle to match the top.

Once you trim the inside as you are suggesting showing the pictures with the penciled Xes, you may adjust the remaining angle by placing a strip of 80 or 120 grit sand paper between the cheek and the guitar grit side toward the cheeks and pulling it out toward the back out and slightly down (to avoid rounding off the tail). This works by incrementally taking more off of the cheeks on the tail side because it is in contact with the paper for more of the pull. I would try a couple of pulls on each side and see where you are. As you change the angle check to make sure the neck is staying centered. That you are not taking more off one side than the other.

Do not do anything drastic at this point because you are very close.

[Ben-Had]

Here's a Stewmac instruction of what John is talking about. It may help to visualize the process:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Sandi ... structions