Slope shoulder neck joint

[NeilG495]

I’m building my first 12 fret, slope shoulder, guitar and wondered if it’s ok to flatten the end of the guitar where the heel makes contact. It is quite a pronounced curve so if I do flatten it, it will removed half the thickness of the binding at the fingerboard side, not as bad at the heel cap due to the smaller width.

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[John Parchem]

cut the heel cheeks at about 5°. The fretboard and the heel cap will hide that the neck is not exactly flush with the sides.

[NeilG495]

Thank you John, will do.

[John Parchem]

Btw what kind of heel joint are you using. I do this with a bolt on mortise and tenon. Also works with a dovetail.

[NeilG495]

It’s a bolt on mortise and tendon, I use a router with a neck angle jig for the mortise and tenon. As the router will put flat tenon cheeks on, I suspect I’ll have to chisel the 5° angle unless there’s an easier way?

[John Parchem]

In that case mark out about 3/16" or so from the side edge of the cheeks and clear the area between the inside edge and the tenon with
chisel so only a thin strip of the cheeks touch the sides. That way you have less wood to deal with while aligning the neck angles. Once the neck angle is close you can pull sand paper to floss the neck cheeks to shape the heel cheeks to curve of the sides.

[NeilG495]

I understand, many thanks again John.