This will MAKE & BREAK your Guitar Build - Aligning Neck & Bridge

This is the most important part of any guitar build - Installing and aligning the bridge and the neck. In this video I'm sharing my hack to do this perfectly (almost ;) every time.
On top of that I'm installing a 2-Point Tremolo bridge for the first time and that gets a little dicey.
I started out heavily inspired by Novo guitars by Dennis Fano - and my building philosophy is - not to reinvent the wheel- but rather try to learn from the greats.
But I’m a guitar building beginner with and this is only my fourth guitar/partscaster build.
If I can do this any one can!
I built my first guitar under corona lockdown in the summer 2020 and guitar building kind of hooked me.
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My second guitar build - Novo Serus T inspired:

My third guitar build - Andy Summers Telecaster::

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[Ibaneddie]

Since you don't have a center line to work with you could have established one by laying your longer ruler on the edges of either side of the neck and drawn 2 lines up towards the back of the body, measure the distance between those 2 lines at your bridge scale length and that will be dead center! Now since you don't have a drill press you can drill a 10mm hole in a piece of 3/4" mdf or plywood or better yet make a template of the bridge stud holes to support the drill bit while drilling the post holes. It's really important that the stud holes be perfectly straight vertically or you will not get correct placement and they will work themselves loose faster. Jigs and templates are really helpful when building and even assembling parts casters there is tons of good info on Youtube! PS, it's a good idea to use a center punch or awl to first mark your holes, that will guid the brad point drill bit much more precisely! I've been building and repairing guitars for a long time hope this helps someone!

[timothy]

Well done Michael, someday I may try a build. Thank you.

[FingersOnAFretboard]

OMG I just went through this! Everything affects everything else. Wrong bridge placement /wrong neck angle, wrong neck pitch, whammy bar wiggle room, spring claw screw angle boo boos- breaking off a drill bit even...Only pre-drilled holes were for the strap buttons! I opted to plug and re-drill holes in the neck vs. scooting back the bridge, then of course instead I had to move the pickguard so the pole pieces on the neck pickup were were at the harmonic node points(...and covered some gaps lol).imported non-licensed bodies and necks may have inaccurate depths and widths. looking at pre existing Factory Strats verified some inconsistencies that had to be accounted for to obtain the ideal measurements. You're right, definitely learned some hard lessons about measuring five times before drilling. Titebond glue and dowel rod plugs have rescued me too many times now!

[eddiejr]

I feel your pain…I just finished a hardtail soloist build from Warmoth…I thought everything would fit properly…NO…the bridge and neck didn’t line up height wise…I don’t have a router to deepen the neck pocket so I had to shim the bridge “higher” about 1.5mm to get proper string action height…what a mess…well done my man 👍

[longotown]

Love it Micheal - I just did the same thing and had to enlarge the opening for the Tremelo Block! love your videos!

[Nellil]

I always add 2-3 mm for the bridge position...

[TheGlaude]

Hi Michael, great video as always! One tip to prevent a lot of issues: try first on a piece of scrap wood (of course, it might be less entertaining for us 😄) Here for instance, you could drill first some holes in a scrap piece to determine the size of the drill bit needed for your studs. Redrilling in an existing hole without a drill press is quite adventurous 😅. Can't wait to see you playing that guitar 🎸

[yanagida_]

impeccable timing!
I was planning on building a Tele later this year and I was thinking about the allignment and how I'll go about installing the bridge and neck with atleast close to the proper scale length and string allignment.
the one screw on the neck is godsend! I don't have enough clamps to deal with the neck and I want to do the build alone so I can focus properly😂

since I'm still at the planning stage I'll be checking in on your videos from time to time to gain some knowledge!
I'll be building an aerodyne style Tele with a Turquoise full gloss body, roasted maple neck and gold hardware!

[lone-wolf-]

I like how good she already sounds unplugged! Well done!👍🏼
10:38 the strings are pulling the neck about 1mm. Then the compensation for the stiffness of the e string is pretty much 1.2-1.5 mm. Tht‘s why the saddles ended up further back. 😊
Also better to measure from the nut to the 12. fret and take that measurement again from about the middle of the 12. fret to the e saddle and add 1.5mm, than measuring directly the supposed scale length. It is way more exact. Necks are not always precise to one tenth of a mm, and also the ruler can be inexact. I even measure to the line of the 12. fret where the string leaves it, wich is not quite in the middle of the fret.
Cheers!🤘🏻