Neck angle question

I might be thinking about this all wrong, but, here goes...

On a flat top uke, should there be a slight neck angle in relation to the soundboard?
I understand how this would be achieved by putting a slight angle in the heel before it's attached to the sound box.
But, then what happens to the slight space this would create under the fretboard where it attaches to the soundboard?

Does that even make sense, or should the neck (and therefore, the fretboard/frets) be parallel to the soundboard?

And, just to make this more confusing for me, if it's supposed to be parallel, then how would you keep the bridge from being super thin?

~Fred

If you think about it the bridge will not be as thin as you think..Say on a 17" tenor it depends how thick the fretboard is for a start ,and the action required at the 12th fret.....E.G. if the action is 1/8 inch at the 12th fret..then double that = 1/4 inch plus the thickness of the fretboard say 3/16 inch this will give you 7/16 inch for bridge/saddle height here is a quick sketch wot! i did.

Thank you, that is extremely helpful!
It also eases my mind about my string heights too.
I've been trying to keep them parallel to the fretboard, but I see now that I can have some angle in them as well.
Thanks much!

The goal is to have the fretboard parallel with the sound board. So when you lay a straight ruler on the fretboard, it should lay right on top of the bridge edge.
That was what I intended for my tenor build, but after attaching the neck to the body, I do have a very slight angle, the fretboard part that is on top of the sound board has a tiny gap which I filled with sawdust+mixed with glue. And my bridge is made slightly higher too to meet the ruler criteria above.
This "unwanted" angle turns out to be OK, no issue at all as long as it's not too much.

It's amazing what pen and paper can do.

The following is an example of a tenor ukulele with a domed top and back. Top Radius being 15' and the back a 28' ( although back doesn't effect neck angle usually) The neck has a typical negative angle of 1.5 degrees. Bridge/saddle total height should be somewhere close to .35" from the top of bridge location and the dome .........top of the bridge height should be very close to zero in relationship to the straight edge running parallel to the neck if it is laid across the top of the fret wire if the fret board is installed on the neck. As Timbuck has pointed out the same should be true for a relatively flat top..... exception would be any string pull causing the top to deflect then this possibly should be taken into the equation. The larger or taller the dome the higher the negative angle.... most guitar builders in particular attempt to flatten the area of the top directly between the sound hole and the neck joint so that fitting the fret board is somewhat easier with out the hump, need for shims, or fret board inconsistency in thickness.

God Bless.

Kevin

Great drawing Timbuk. I'm familiar with the RCH measurement but not the Gnatt's Cock. Must be a UK thing....is there a conversion factor for us Yanks?

ksquine said:

Great drawing Timbuk. I'm familiar with the RCH measurement but not the Gnatt's Cock. Must be a UK thing....is there a conversion factor for us Yanks?

Click to expand...

Same measurment in US and UK..But to convert to Metric you multiply by 25.4 and you get the value in EU-CH....RCH X 25.4 = EU-CH Simple!

EU and CH that isn't "European Union' and 'Chinese" Yuan? RCH is about the measure of what the USD is headed toward.... oh... you Brits need to watch yourselves too! Wait..... one RCH might be rather small, but... it is special... if you miss it, you might wish you didn't! oops... sorry..

Hey Ken, it is a good drawing of the principle but isn't .125" at 12th a bit of an overkill?

Sven

Sven said:

Hey Ken, it is a good drawing of the principle but isn't .125" at 12th a bit of an overkill?

Sven

Click to expand...

Yeh! Sven me old mucka.... admitted it is a bit low...I suggest we make it .375" like yours are. :smileybounce:

You rotter, you're worse than my kids... I'm a shadow of the wreck of a broken man I used to be.