Laminate Necks and Head Angle

[JulieMo]

When I made an OM a few years back, I used some figured sapele stock to make the neck. I have the other half that I'm thinking of for another OM. Thing is, the neck angle is maybe 5 degrees, tops. Is this a problem?

The other thing I'm thinking is ripping it and using zebrawood as a laminate wood. Is there anything about zebrawood that would make it a bad laminate neck wood?

Thanks,
Julie

[Mark Hatcher]

The neck angle is set so that the strings land on the saddle at about 1/2” off the top of the soundboard. That’s usually about a 1 to 1 1/2 degree neck angle. The top radius and fretboard thickness and a few other things make a difference there.
I think of the neck angle as a result more than an exact target. It’s the 1/2” off the soundboard at to saddle that I use as the target.

Zebrawood shouldn’t cause any issues as a neck laminate. It glues well

Enjoy your sophomore build!

Mark

[Mark Hatcher]

You may be asking about the headstock angle and I answered about the neck angle. The headstock angle is usually around 15 degrees on a solid headstock. This is so there is enough down preasure on the strings going over the nut. A slothead gets away with a 10 degree angle because the string rollers are set down into the headstock increasing the string angle going up to the nut.

I don’t think anything good will happen with a 5 degree angle

Mark

[JulieMo]

Originally Posted by Mark Hatcher

You may be asking about the headstock angle and I answered about the neck angle. The headstock angle is usually around 15 degrees on a solid headstock. This is so there is enough down preasure on the strings going over the nut. A slothead gets away with a 10 degree angle because the string rollers are set down into the headstock increasing the string angle going up to the nut.

I don’t think anything good will happen with a 5 degree angle

Mark

Thank you, Mark. And yes, it was the relation to neck and headstock I was referring to.

I went back on some pictures to take a look at what I did on the first one.

While you can't measure the angle it looks l a lot more like 15 than 7 degrees.

About the best I can do with the piece of stock left over from making the above neck is 10 degrees. I have plans I bought from LMI years ago and that angle is 15 degrees so it looks like a scarf joint will be part of the build.

Thanks again for your help, Mark.

Julie

[Bruce Sexauer]

It looks like 10 degrees to me. I use 13.5.