I have spent an immense amount of time thinking about to figure out how to deal with the neck joint. I was having a really hard time figuring out what angle the neck needed to be. In part this is because the bottom of the neck pocket is not flat, but rather slopes down as it goes toward the heel. Since this is an archtop body, I need it to clear the pickups without making the bridge rise too high. That is complicated by the fact that the bridge will be around 2 cm closer to the strap-button than it would normally be, so a bit further down the arch.

I have been using different block sizes and different angles, and I think I finally got them close to righttoday... the simplest solution seems to be to put a flat piece of wood in the bottom of the pocket that will raise the bottom about 5/8" (16mm). It will then need ashim to raise the heel end by about 1.2 degrees... I tried it with scrap I have around, and that should be pretty close.

So now my question is about wood. First, what should I use for the block to raise the bottom? I had thought about maple. I am not sure whether I care about matching color, but the maple I have is a little darker than the back and sides so, it may not matter. Maple is super dense and heavy, but man is it a pain to work. On the last build I sanded down some pickup rings to fit the archtop that were made of maple...and I thought I would grow old and die doing it.

I also have some pine, that is much lighter and easier to work, but I wonder if it's strong enough? I know it's sometimes used in guitars, but it's also used in Tae Kwon Do because it's easy to break...

Or I could go to my old favorite, poplar. I can get it cheap, and it's strong and easy to work, and it seems like a good compromise wood...particularly if it gets painted.

The other question is about the shims. I found some at the home depot that are cedar. They are just the right angle, amazingly and were relatively cheap. It seems to me for a thin shim cedar should be fine. I know it's sometimes used for acoustic guitar tops, but it's even lighter than the pine. Still, the angle is just right, and I don't think I need to glue it in since it will sit on top of the block...

Curious what folks think?