Distance of neck plane above soundboard?

[J Kienzle]

I'm working on putting together the neck and body of a guitar based on the stewmac 000 12 fret plans, my first guitar, and had a couple questions.

Since I made the neck myself, I don't really have a pre machined angle to work with, so although i tried to cut the neck cheeks as close to the specs on the blueprint (1 1/2 degrees), and they seem pretty good,  I'm planning on fine tuning the neck set based on a distance above the saddle location, marked on a piece of tape stuck on the body.  There is no fretboard on the neck, I just place a straight edge on the fretboard surface.  It seems there is a bit of tolerance in the measurement I'm looking for.  One source recommends between 1/16th" and 1/8",  (once again, with no bridge, and no fretboard).  I'm not sure how much precision I need to strive for at this point, but if someone could recommend a more concrete number to shoot for...    I do have feeler gauges, if a measurement in decimal inches or mm should be called for. Right now it's just a little above 1/8".  I plan to correct a gap under the top edge of the sound hole(as per KMG Neck Set Tutorial), which is currently just under 1/16", using this measurement, so I want to make sure it's accurate. I do have the bridge I'm going to be using, though ive yet to radius the underside of it, so if a measurement involving the bridge is preferable, I could do it that way, too.


Thanks

[ken cierp]

Once you have the neck finger board plane and the FB extension area perfectly matching 180 degrees a straight line --- 1/16" above the bridge saddle area is correct. Many builders really obsesse over this measurement - but keep in mind that most factories including Martin have several different bridge thicknesses about .05" increments. So these can tweak the fit a bit -- its wood and it changes during assembly even under the best humidity control. And there is a great deal of leeway in saddle height as well.