Demystifying Guitar Neck Angle: A Fully Comprehensive Guide to Everything You Need to Know and Do

Welcome back to the channel! For those new here, I'm Seán and I am a luthier and guitar-building teacher. In this video I am covering one of the most shrouded topics of guitar building - neck angle. It's a tough one, so strap in and listen up!

Make sure to like and subscribe, and leave a comment about whatever I talked about; if you agree, disagree or have any other ideas yourself. I'd love to hear them!

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Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:44 What is neck angle
1:34 When do you need a neck angle
4:04 Figure out if you need an angle
5:11 Maths
8:36 Neck angle methods
9:00 Method 1 angle the top
10:55 Method 2 angle neck pocket
12:07 Method 3 angle neck heel
12:52 Fine tune neck angle
13:55 Plane neck heel
15:16 Shims rant
16:21 Wrapping up
17:25 Conclusion

Check out some of my other video playlists:

I am a guitar builder (and now teacher) from Ireland, but currently based in the South of England working with Crimson Guitars. I am a teacher and a luthier and I am currently loving my job and the direction my life is going. My guitars are built by hand, from the heart and with love in every shaving.

If you like what I am doing here on the Tube, please like and subscribe to the channel. This is another of hopefully many more videos, cataloguing my journey forward into the world, and I hope that you might share this journey with me!

Thank You for being a part of this.

[AwenLutherieCustomGuitars]

Hi everyone! Thank you all so much for checking out my video, but I have a small favour to ask. About 95% of recent viewers aren't actually subscribed to my channel and I will be putting out more similar videos in the future. If you enjoy the videos I'm making, please consider hitting that subscribe button as a show of support. Thank you again!

[SallowKyn]

And that folks is why YouTube was made. Clear info from an experienced source. No whizzy cut scenes or click bait required. Nice one.

[simonlinser]

I came here after a fender video that i consider the laziest video I've ever watched. Yet here i am 30 seconds into a video not made by a corporation and i can already tell im going to actually learn something here. And I'll probably be watching more videos. Thank you. I wish i had money to give you.

[scottbegg]

easiest and best way someone has explained how to get the correct neck angle.

[matt]

You really do make it sound so much harder than it is. and as for shims pushing frets out on older in your life. Good to see a bloke doing his own necks though. So many people posing as builders now is nuts.

[verminr]

Absolutely brilliant! You described all the concepts of neck angles fully and explained the options and how to decide which option you need to choose. It's everything I wanted to know for building my first electric guitar. Thank you!

[coreyeller]

Sean, I am a Luthier for the last 35 years, you have simplified neck angle perfectly. great video I have learned from it, I build mostly acoustic instruments so found this very helpful on my current 5 string bass (neck Through) build, Thanks so much for the great video.

[MarcinOfTheNuclearVillage]

Thanks for the video brother! Don't worry, it all makes sense. I know all about this stuff... theoretically. Although, having it explained step by step, with attention to every detail was really helpful. Seems like you're a natural born teacher man. Keep up the good work. \m/

[Allguitarinfo]

THIS CHANNEL IS A HIDDDEN JEM...this channel should be the standard that all Luther's channels aspire to .. ABSOLUTELY INFORMATIVE. Clear and thorough instruction ....

[foulman]

Thanks! Just reviewing for my second build. Thank you for helping to teach me to build.

[DanPalmerCeramics]

I've been wondering about this for ages. Great info, thanks!

[jamesfleming]

Excellent. Finally an explanation of why a guitar might need neck angle and a method for measuring that. Thank you!

[DaleJames-dj]

Brilliant 😊. I built a guitar kit, within 5 seconds you have answered all my questions. You speak my language, many thanks.

[doglegsteve]

Best and easiest to understand video on setting neck angles - excellent - thank you for taking your time doing this - there are so many bad complicated videos on this subject out there - big kudos to you.

[cloverthecalf]

I'm amazed how easy things seem once you've explained them! Thanks for these tutorials you've been posting recently, they're really helpful!

[UCEgzwK]

Thanks Awen, very straight forward and clear lesson, really helpfull for partscaster diy guys.
BTW, can you make a vid regarding string tension setting ? Have a nice day Sir.

[KennedyIvy]

Thank god this video exists. Had to watch a few times, perfectly explained

[brianjordan]

Thank you for explaining the reasoning behind the neck angle.

[Gatherersmusic]

Really good explanation, thanks for demystifying this process.

[Yosser]

There’s another way, recessing the bridge into the body. I did this with a Tele style build with a tune o matic bridge and it worked really well.