Another DC Junior

[sulistbu]

Well I just could not resist, got myself a DC-JR and have not told my other half.
Anyway its mahogany body and neck, but I am bit puzzle when I did a mock up build.
And before sanding and hacking away I thought I sought some help

If i could refer to pix 2 and 3 :
1. What's the gap between Lo E and the last fret on DC JR?
2. Is there a gap between neck and the body at the heel end of the neck?

Thank you all for your help.

Regards
Budi

[gavinturner]

Hey Budi,

The gap to the P90 looks OK but could be lower. With your particular bridge it doesn't look like you can do much about it unless you recess the bridge or change it. You can check the signal coming out of the P90 at this height by attaching an output jack directly to the pickup and giving it strum. Shimming the neck (see below) will help this distance a bit but not much..

The E strings should really be flat on the deck with the bridge at it's lowest adjustment height. Looks like you will need to shim the neck to angle it back and bring the string height down. You may also need to take some out of the base of the neck cavity to bring it down closer to the body. When I built my kit I bought a replacement bridge from Stewmac, but it was just too high - the back angle required on the neck looked just too much to attempt with a shim. Try angling the neck just holding it with your hands to estimate how much shim angle is required with this bridge to get the strings flat on the deck. This will tell you if you can comfortably do it with a shim.

Hope this helps..

cheers,
Gav.

[sulistbu]

Thanks Gav,

Always ready to lend idea. But at the moment my head hurts and I think I'll hit the sack and think about your idea again tomorrow.

Cheers
Budi

[kells80aus]

Hi Budi,
the gap is a result of the neck slot being angled so the neck points up at the bridge. I'd just sand a bit off the end of the neck heal till it closes up.

I've had the problem of the strings being high with one of my builds I used a forstner bit to sink the bridge posts a mm into the body. the other option is to carefully sand the bottom of the neck heal till it comes up, bearing in mind this will open the gap up more at the foot of the heal.

Cheers PK

[keloooe]

Looking at my Epi Jr, the board is up a little so the top of the guard can slot into it easily

[sulistbu]

Thank you all for your help, I found this on the net,
Is option 3 (3rd from diagram) is option i should achieved?

Thanks again in advance for all your help.

Budi

[kells80aus]

Hi Budi.

I had a look at the Kit I've got and the heal of the neck has a 2mm taper. the body route is effectively flat. So to overcome the bridge height problem you will need to sand the heal of the neck taking a little bit of material off the front of the bottom of the heal. and none off the back

to get rid of the 2mm gap at the end of theneck just sand a taper on the back edge of the neck.

PK

[Gavin1393]

This comes from the "How to build your PBG" Thread

Perhaps the most important part of building your Pit Bull guitar kit is getting the neck centred and correctly aligned. It can seem to be a daunting task; with the right knowledge, some patience, and a bit of string, it is a snap.
As with all aspects of building a guitar, attention to detail is essential. The more attention to detail, the better the guitar will be.
Many people don’t realise that the neck has to be right in three dimensions- back and forward to get the right scale length, side to side to get the right alignment, and up and down to get the inclination to give the right action, and bridge and pickup relationships.

:P The steps:
TIP: You don’t need to use a tape measure to measure- a piece of fishing line or wool or string is all you need (except maybe for Step 1, but that’s up to you). You are comparing one measurement against another.
We’ll discuss the steps to getting your neck pointed- literally- in the right direction. I would suggest that you do this, or at least do a dry run, before any painting on the body or neck. That way that way, if you put a scrape on the guitar it can be fixed when finishing. Scraping an already finished guitar- well, not a good thought, is it.
Setting the Scale Length
Don’t assume that by jamming the neck as far as it goes into the body the scale length will be correct.
Measure the distance from the edge of the nut to the high point (the crown) of the 12th fret. Wind all the saddles as far forward (towards the pickups) as they will go. The distance from the edge of the pickup side of the saddles (on the bridge) to the crown of the 12th fret should be the same distance. Most times though, you may find that the second measurement from the saddles to the crown of the 12th fret is approximately 3mm longer. This s called compensation and is quite normal.

/<\\/p>[]<\\/p>/String Compensation
If measuring the full scale length (i.e. the full length – not just to the 12th fret as mentioned in the shortcut-tip above) we usually measure at the top-E string. That’s because this string is the thinnest and requires the least amount of string compensation. This string is, therefore, closer to the actual scale length of the instrument. The other strings are generally compensated which means they’re actually slightly longer than the scale length.

/<\\/p>[]<\\/p>/]What is compensation?

When you fret a string somewhere along the fretboard, you actually sharpen that string’s pitch by a tiny amount. To compensate for this, each string is made a little bit longer than the instrument’s actual scale length, thereby ‘flattening’ its pitch. The amount that each string is made longer (flattened) depends on that strings size – thin strings not much and getting progressively more as the strings get thicker. Clever, eh?

To nicely illustrate it, this is why acoustic saddles are angled – the sounding length of the thicker, wound strings is actually longer than that of the thinner strings.

Many guitars have adjustable bridges and/or string saddles to allow each string’s compensation be accurately set. Setting the compensation is referred to as ‘intonating‘ the instrument and the compensation overall can be called ‘intonation‘. .

How you work out the measuring point on the saddles will be different, depending on what sort of bridge you are using. You may have to move the bridge or neck slightly to get it right. Be wary of any gaps in the neck/body join, though. You need a tight fit for a good transfer.

/<\\/p>[]<\\/p>/Square the Neck
The first step to having a square neck is to identify some points of reference on the neck and body of the guitar. You are looking for a couple of points that are square to the centreline of the body, and equally on either side of the centreline. It might be the nust slot on the neck; it might be a pickup rout on the body; it might be the string through-body holes on a Tele, or pivot screws on a Strat or Floyd. They must be square- for example, the bridge on a LP style body won’t be any good because it’s at an angle.
This is crucial. Again, attention to detail is paramount!
Here’s one I prepared earlier… Ignore that this guitar is finished.


There are four points we will refer to. Let's call them A and B on either side of the nut, and Y and Z on either side of the pickup rout in this case- maybe a corner of the rout. It has to be a small point because you are trying to be precise, as you will see. I stick in pins at the points I want to use to measure.

The first measurement we take is A to Y, and B to Z. If they are the same, the neck is at the correct angle compared to the body. If they are not, then the neck is pointed towards the measured shorter side.

The next measurements taken are A to Z and B to Y. If these are the same, then the neck is on the body centreline. If they are not, then the neck is straight out from the body, but not on centre. The neck needs to be moved- if A to Z is shorter, the neck needs to be moved to the A-Y side. The other reason that these measurements might be out is that the neck is twisted, but that is not going to happen with a Pit Bull kit.

/<\\/p>[]<\\/p>/Setting the Neck Angle (or Inclination)
There is nothing worse than playing a guitar with the wrong inclination- the angle that the neck meets the body, when that angle suits the bridge that is being used. In this case, close enough is good enough because you have a few adjustments that can be made after the guitar is finished. These adjustments include the truss rod, the bridge and the nut.

So, how to do it? It is as simple as the other steps. Set the neck in the body, install the bridge with the saddles about half height, and the pickups (or pickguard if the pickups are mounted in it).
Run your now favourite piece of string from both e-string slots on the nut to the saddles on the bridge. Check out the gaps between string and fretboard at the 12th fret and at the last fret. There should be a reasonable gap. Remember though that the string tension and truss rod will affect the finished neck. Remember, this is one of the rare cases a case where near enough is good enough.

If the inclination is too shallow, the action will be too high; if it is too steep, the strings will be rubbing across the frets. In both cases, it is worthwhile taking time to get a reasonably good angle set up now, to reduce the adjustment required later.

IMPORTANT!!! This goes for most things in life- do not use up all your adjustment during the initial setup! To do so means you have a really, REALLY bad setup.
EVEN MORE IMPORTANT!!! Don’t go hacking at your new guitar to get everything right. If the neck angle seems wrong, it probably isn’t. Stop, have your favourite non-alcoholic beverage, watch the football, and come back later.


NOTE:
/<\\/p>[]<\\/p>/Measuring the distance between the top of 12th Fret and bottom/underside of the respective string, most builders will set action at 2.4mm to 2.8mm on the bass E string at the 12th fret and 1.6mm to 2.0mm on the treble E.

[kells80aus]

This really Sux. 3 times I have posted This is a SET Neck....

PK

[Brendan]

Budi,
Looking at your guitar - looks like you've got a nice bit of wood there - the advice above pretty much holds true for whatever type of neck you have. The Gavmeister setup info is critical to get everything in line, but that seems OK at first look.
It does however seem that the fretboard is riding high compared with the body. Can I ask if the neck is all the way back? My experience with my basses is that even slight adjustments can make a significant difference to the neck angle. Any chance of a photo of the neck channel to see how good the rout is? How tight is the quickgrip? If it can be tightened, that may make a bit of difference. Gut feeling is that it would also be worthwhile making sure that the neck is straight and that there's no bow in either direction - should be, but that again can have an impact on the outcome.

If you've got any more info - some photos of the neck and how it's seated from a couple of angles would be great.