What the hell am I going to do with this thing?

[Rick]

Interesting ...

 

[rockandroller]

Are you going to use an actual Rickenbacker-style bridge and tailpiece setup? Everything you do with the neck joint should be based on the height of that incoming bridge...

 

[stratamania]

Sure! But then there would be a little notch where the body meets the neck on the bass side. I might be able to get 1/8" that way, or maybe more since I plan to cut the heel down on the bottom a bit.

This brings us to the second problem: The heel of the neck is not parallel to the fretboard; it's angled down at a typical gibson neck angle. Ricks have their necks flat WRT the body ... should I do the same here or angle it? Hmmmm....

Ah, decisions. I am sure you will sort it out.

 

[Spud]

I would take a belt sander and knock down the heel height and make it parallel to the neck or your bridge height is going to be crazy high.

 

[TheElvis]

I wouldn't mess with the height until you installed the bridge, not much room for adjustment.

Also did you cut the headstock yet? I would go for something with more of a straight string pull.

 

[mayfly]

OK! I did some investigation and Guitar Fetish makes a pile of rick-type pickups. They are 1/2" high, so with some calculations I determined the appropriate height of the fingerboard off the body. From that I calculated how much to cut off from the neck heel:



I'm thinking I'll cut the heel first, then notch the top once I make sure the geometry works. Now how to cut that heel! A band saw or a table saw would be the perfect solution, but I don't have either. I thought about using a router, but that would require some fancy-ass jig because of the strange geometry. Currently I'm thinking I'll cut it with a Japanese hand saw. Now, I'm not that great with the saw, so I need some kind of guide to make sure I don't go overboard. I'm exploring aluminum L-brackets double sided taped to it on either side...

 

[Spud]

This is going to end badly.

 

[coralnut]

have you got a jointer? if so, glue in a wedged shim then pass the heel over the jointer.

 

[Hodgo]

This is going to end badly.

Filler and paint make me the carpenter I ain’t!

 

[Spud]

Filler and paint make me the carpenter I ain’t!

Putty's your buddy!

 

[Rick]

There must be a jig for this. I found the people at Stew Mac to helpful with these things, though that was 15 years ago. Maybe a call to them?

 

[mayfly]

Good advice. I'm going through the Lee Valley catalogue at the moment looking for either a fancy router jig or a fancy miter box.

 

[mayfly]

Update time. I had some time on vacation to think about this little problem, and during that time I remembered something about a drill press mounted planer. Specifically this thing:

So despite the trade mashup, I ordered one. While I was waiting, I came up with a jig to hold the neck the way I wanted:



The vice ensures that the work is parallel to the cutter, and the elastic arrangement at the headstock end allows tilt adjustment.


The arrangement actually worked!




I started out making quite large cuts, but then settled down to very fine increments. I did this by leaving the drill press table where it was and adding old business cards under the neck to bring it up a c*nt hair or two. I stopped early to give myself some breathing room; the result is very very nice:



Onward!

 

[mayfly]

Moving right along...