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Flippo, the way I was taught was to place a 1/4" shim between the workboard and the neck at the nut position, then clamp the body flat to the workboard and glue the back on. This will give the rake or angle needed for proper string height. It's simple, no math, and it has worked fine for me.

Tim

Filippo - His evolution of this on the Rodriguez version of Online Apprentice sounds even easier. Here you clamp the back to the body except in the region near the neck, then you do the same measurements and place shims between the foot and the closest transverse brace on the back, working through the soundhole as you measure along the top. You can take your hands off the assembly at any point and you don't lose your position. Then, when you glue the back on, you just put the already measured shims in place, with a little plastic wrap or something to keep the shim from picking up glue from the foot/back joint.

I've used this method on 5 guitars so far, and have four more with conventional narrow side slots in the works that will also use the same method. I'd like to try out double wedges after that, but I confess that I don't like the idea of losing this neck setting procedure.

Jim

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

The traditional way is to use the solera for this, the neck and top are clamped to it and that is all. Mine started with a default lift of 2.5mm but I have added a shim at the nut to make it flat - I use a strong dome so I don't need any lift now.

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Build log

I do the same as Alexandru .

Mc

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Mike Collins

An older tradition is to have the top/neck level and to taper the fingerboard.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

I do both. Neck shimmed up in solera by 1.5 mm, and taper fingerboard. Minor adjustments can be made with fingerboard taper.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I still taper the f.b. after gluing it on also.
It allows me to get the saddle height above the top right where I want it everytime.

Mc

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Mike Collins

It'll be different for you, Filippo. I have both a dome in the lower bout and the raised wedge in the solera. That lowers the height of the bridge relative to the angle of the neck by a couple of mm over just doming the top. If you have a dome and no wedge, you are pushing your bridge up by a couple of mm, compared to my geometry. Hauser used a tapered fingerboard, but you may not need it with your layout. I think Alex builds flat at the neck, with a domed top, and doesn't taper fingerboards, but I think he has about a 3mm dish.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I have used for many years a mold with a flat ,wide piece of wood screwed beneath it. There is a neck extension going up the neck to the nut position. The guitar top is placed face down in it. The top rests on a 1/8" thick piece of masonite around its edges. The neck is clamped down to the end of the neck extension before the back is glued on. This gives me a nice neck angle for a proper height bridge.

I also have a soundhole cut through the bottom of the mold,so I can reach inside the guitar to wipe glue out after the back is glued on,and also to check for everything fitting when the back is trial clamped in place.