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I'm currently building a five string fretless acoustic bass following the GAL Plans #13 by Tim Olsen. It's a flat-top. I'm wondering if anyone has any recommendations with respect to the neck angle. On the plans, the neck has no back angle but I'm a little concerned this may not leave me with much saddle clear of the bridge. These days on my "regular" guitars, I angle my necks so that when I lay a straight edge along them prior to putting on the fret board, I clear the body of the guitar at the saddle position by about 3 mm. This is because I like to have a healthy amount of saddle to start with to allow for about a 1 - 1.5 mm rise in the top from string tension over the first few months. So I'm inclined to think I should angle for a couple of millimeters but as this is my first bass and first fretless guitar I'd appreciate some guidance. One thing is that being fretless provides opportunities to plane in an angle on the fret board should that need arise.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Pat

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There are three kinds of people:

Those that make things happen,
those that watch things happen,
and those that wondered what happened.

I am not sure how much this helps but I have been doing some work on cellos and such and the string clearances are much much higher that anything on a guitar. I bet that if you email Tim he would advise as well.

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Don't forget that you'll be wanting higher action on a bass as well....

So if there is no angle and a standard 3/8" bridge, you should still get some saddle height.

Check out RM Mottola's free acoustic bass plan as I believe it has what you are looking for. On my ABG my neck angle was about 1 1/2 degrees.

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Doug

Don't let fear or common sense stop you from trying to build something

Thanks for the responses. I guess I will leave the neck square. I've got two sets of plans for an acoustic bass that show it that way. Also, I've gotten a little further along and today I was able to bolt the neck to the guitar and sit the fret board in place. When I do that and put a straight edge on top it looks like it's going to work.

Doug, I did check out Mottola's plans and you are right, the neck does appear to have a back angle. However, the top edge of the rims to this guitar also have a curve so it's not exactly a flat top...

Pat

_________________
There are three kinds of people:

Those that make things happen,
those that watch things happen,
and those that wondered what happened.

If memory serves me, I believe Mottola recommended a 30' radius top, which I did and worked perfectly with the slight back angle.

_________________
Doug

Don't let fear or common sense stop you from trying to build something