Electric guitar cant angle

[Jeff McKim]

I finished my first full (minus neck which I bought complete other than fret dressing) build a few weeks ago. It's in the style of an Epiphone Wilshire. It came out pretty decent except I didn't learn until after it is finished that Epiphone/Gibson typically cant the necks of their guitars downward from the guitar top between 3 and 5 degrees. In my current build the neck top and the guitar body top are dead parallel. After messing with the neck and taking care dressing the frets it's pretty playable according to me and couple others who have played it.

I have an old Wilshire to compare it to and that does seem to have a slight downward cant as well. This raises some questions for my next build (in the rough start up phase):

1) I used a wrap around Gotoh, single piece bridge/tailpiece combo (hardtail - just to be clear) the first time. If I went with this again, what would the best practice/range of the cant be? i.e. 3-5 degrees like a Les Paul or other. (It's a pretty fine cant to measure accurately off my old guitar.)

2) If I wanted to change to a Telecaster style hard tail for the next build, would the cant be different? If different, what would the range be?

Thanks.

[AlexR]

Re: Electric guitar cant angle

The angle either makes a carved top work, or allows for string clearance for a tall bridge. But Fender manage to do their Strats and Teles with no neck angle, so unless your body is significantly different to a regular Tele there is no need to have an angle.
But even then, you don't have to do angle. Some guitars have the neck/fretboard sitting more proud of the top to get bridge clearance. Some Gibsons do both (archtops).

The best way of finding out the angle is to physically measure it. There are way too many variables involved to just say 'x' is your angle.

[DavidRavenMoon]

Electric guitar cant angle

What you need to do is make a full size drawing of the side from the nut to the bridge area. Draw a line that measures your scale length from the bridge towards the nut. Then decide on what bridge you want to use, and add that height to the drawing in the location it will be.

Then add a little height to clear the frets, and draw a line to the nut; that’s your neck angle.


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[orpheo]

Re: Electric guitar cant angle

If you're going with a fender style hardtail (like Hipshot's hardtail, for a more modern reference, with the .175'' floor height), you need a 0 degree angle but you will need the neck to stick out 7mm above the surface of the front of the body.

If you're going with a Tune O Matic, you can get away with a 0 degree neck angle, but you will need to either recess the bridge+stoptail (or bridge and use string through body ferrules) or have the neck stick out 11 millimeters above the front of the body.

[Jeff McKim]

Re: Electric guitar cant angle

Outstanding responses. Thanks all.

Orpheo, I think you have nailed my "issue." The Tune O Matic torqued all the way to the floor is just a tad high. Probably only a mm or so but it could definitely be just a bit down for my taste. Also good info about the 7mm rise on Fender necks/bridges. To to others, yes, I will need to do something about laying out/representing the string layout between bridge and nut.

And all this started because my wife was wandering through the shop, saw a butcher block style table top I'd quit working on a couple years ago (and that we no longer have use for) and said, "Why don't you make guitars out of that?" ... ... Okey doke.