Official Luthiers Forum!

Any tips for lowering the neck angle on a finished neck (fretboard on and frets installed - butt joint). Needs to come down about 2 mm. I'm pretty good at flossing the joint to raise the neck angle, but it seems more difficult to go the other way. Thanks in advance for any advice.

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Aaron Craig

Thanks. Current height above the fret plane is about 4.2 mm above the top of the bridge.

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Aaron Craig

What Todd said and a sanding block with the paper glued to the block.

I stick psa sandpaper to the body under the heel area & trim away the sandpaper around the mortise. Then, using a scrap of sandpaper, dull the PSA paper on the back side of the mortise, where you don't want to remove more material. Work the surface of the heel against the abrasive, with firm down pressure as you sand.
You will not get right into the corner where the fingerboard extension meets the heel, but a (very sharp) chisel will pare off the excess neatly.
To prevent chipping the lacquer, I carefully run thin CA along the edges of the heel, where it will contact the body. It seems to penetrate enough to keep the lacquer from coming loose at the edge.

Yup chisel. Overshoot the mark a touch so you have a little wiggle room to go back while flossing....

Done. Less trouble than I anticipated. Thanks for the help!

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Aaron Craig

Bravo!

One from me....

Mmmmm...! Peetssa

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.