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Luthier Tool currently has these on special. Are there any noticeable advantages over the Woolson design? The aluminum construction is nice. I'm going with one or the other soon, and think I might be able to sell enough to make this one possible.

EDIT: Re-reading my post I see I've assumed that you are considering making the Woolson jig. If not, just ignore me LOL

Apart from that, both jigs will get you 98% of the way there. And if built well, I don't believe that one would be necessarily better than the other. Both should last a lifetime.

A couple of factors come into play when thinking about buying versus making jigs.

Time
Accuracy/Quality
Price

Gee, sound familiar?


As far as the neck jig goes, neither one will get you 100% of the way there. Meaning that neither will get the angle of the neck perfect right out of the jig and you will always need to do some clean up and fine tuning of the neck joint.

So, the factors remain. How much time do you want to spend building guitars versus building jigs. Does it matter to you much?

Accuracy. How confident are you in your jig building to ensure that the jig is as accurate as something you can buy? Is your quality of construction at par with what can be purchased.

What is your time worth? Everything has a value and not just monetary. If you value making things (not just guitars) than maybe the time spent building the jig offers great value to you and as such you gain from it. I'm a believe in the fact that one learns a great deal of how something works by having to build it versus buying it.

Personally, I enjoy building jigs as I gain a great deal of knowledge about the jig from having to build it. I also am a self proclaimed cheap skate so I will often chose to build something over purchasing it. I'm confident in my ability to build accurate jigs which will last me a life time and whoes quality will be on par with most jigs I could purchase.

So the choice will be different for everyone. If you think the jig is of good value and don't have a problem paying for it, buy it

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I actually have one of these... they are great.

The advantages over the woolson set up are numerous, but the biggest advantage is the neck angle is nearly perfect coming out of the jig, and the neck is cut so that it lines up on center with the CL of the guitar (which is something the Woolson/Fox jig doesn't provide). Beyond that it is a very simple system to cut the mortise, tenon, drill the bolt holes and keep everything lined up just the way you want.

I find that with only a tiny bit of fitting (often not much more than a few "floss" pulls the neck is a perfect fit.

But no tool is magic. To make this work right set up is the name of the game. If you get the body prep perfect and dial in the set up it is very easy to make the cuts.

I would definitely buy it again.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

There really is a lot more to it than that... it saves a substantial amount of time. It isn't "just" about getting the neck angles right.

Admittedlly I work slow, but I like this jig a lot.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

I received a PM, so I thought I'd post a link to the Luthier Tool jig for everybody: http://www.luthiertool.com/neck_angle.html

Brock, how does the jig hold the body in place? Were the directions for the process as a whole easy to follow?

Are there any videos of either jig in use?

My only issue with the fixture is that $800 clams is a lot of clams for a fixture I can build for less that $75. but of course it would not be built ot of machined T6 and I am sure the machining time is 90% of the cost.

I'd love to see videos as well.

Michael, I agree with you.

Not trying to be argumentative at all but... what are the specifics of it that isn't "just" about getting the neck angle(s) right? I don't have one, have never seen one so I don't know for sure (I do have a Fox/Woolson jig though), but the aspect of the jig (from the looks and details) is very similar to that of the Fox/Woolson jig.

Thanks for more detail Brock

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"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Luthiertools makes great tooling and I have no doubt this is a super fixture. I use their binding attachment and I love it. but I just can't justify forking out 8/10ths of a K for this one or I would have picked it up three years ago.

Don't know if that is directed at me at all, but i certainly don't and have not questioned the quality of Luthier Tools jigs. They look awesome indeed.

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

I have the plans for the Woolson sitting on my drawing table right now. And I've been looking at the LT gig for the past week. If I had the cash I'd go for the LT. For one thing there is probably $300 in Alu. and anodizing alone if not more. It's 18 lbs. of mostly Alu. It looks to me to be a precission piece of equipment.
I'll probably build a couple of the Woolson jigs and then figure out how too improve on it and or incorporate some of the other jigs ideas.
What does the Fox jig look like? Maybe I'll jump mover to Frets and see if there is any shots of it in the Fox tour.

This is my version of the Fox jig copied from one in his shop. I set the upper bout angle where I want it on the guitar and transfer the angle to the jig with a sliding bevel. Looks like the Woolson and LuthierTools jigs actually use the body of the guitar and bridge height to set the angle. Pretty foolproof.
After using mine a bunch of times I've gotten to where I've learned it's idiosyncrasies and it's usually very close and only some minor flossing is needed.
Built it in a day with about $30 worth of materials. The luthiertools system does the body mortise too and actually looks like a good value. Sell one guitar and you have recouped the cost.

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Where does one find the plans for the Fox or Woolson jig? Can you buy them already made?

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I'd love more details, too!

http://cgi.ebay.com/LUTHIERS-Neck-Jig-for-Acoustic-Guitar-Construction_W0QQitemZ280429088776QQcmdZViewItemQQptZGuitar_Accessories?hash=item414ae05008

The seller is a member here. I have no affiliation.

I've got the Luthier Tool jig. It's great. I'll be using it in a week or so. I don't have a video camera, but I'll take some photos. I don't mind spending money on tools when they work. I've got over $100K in tools for my daytime job. (automotive technician)

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http://www.brackettinstruments.com/

IIRC the directions are 21 pages and they are "reasonably" clear. I made a number of test cuts before I actually put a guitar/neck on it and I was glad I did. It took a bit of dialing in to get it to perform perfectly. Just like any of our tools it takes a bit of TLC to get it set up the first time but after that the results are very good and very fast.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

But you are not building the same jig...

I am not trying to be a salesman for this thing, but when folks say that it really just illluminates that there are misunderstandings that this is a Fox/Woolson jig cut from metal. It really does a lot of other cool things as well.

And regarding the price, by the time you buy all the pieces you need it ends up being over 1k for it.

Again, I am not trying to "sell" it. I just really like it and I think comments like this short sell some of the nice features of this jig. Certainly it is not the only way to do it. I built many guitars before I had this.

I will see if I can score up my directions. I have them in PDF somewhere.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Ok... found them (that was easier than I thought)

It is a 3mb PDF doc:

http://www.luthiersforum.com/instructio ... _angle.pdf

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Very Cool! I should publish the instructions for a typical Total Knee Arthroplasty jigging/instrumentation/alignment system. The complexity, design, and machining is amazingly similar. This system looks very well thought out and appears to be an excellent value for the money. I have their slot head cutting jig. Works flawlessly and I never regretted buying it for a second.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Brock, can you give more details?



Brock,
Can you tell us what all the cool things are? I have Luthier Tools binding jig and it is fantastic. So I know that Luthier Tool makes great jigs. It is just hard for me to pay $800.00 more for a jig that essentially does the same thing. So what does Luthier Tool do that Woolson Jig doesn't do?

Thanks,
Tom Dowey

I really like the looks of the neck angle jig (and other tools) from Luthier Tools but just can't spend that much.

For now I'm going to go with Jon Simpson's jig. Yeah, I'm sure I could build one just as good but why bother, his price is right and I can spend my limited time building guitars.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I might have to agree with you Steve. His jig is simple and small and and I like the way it mounts into the vise. If you want to adjust the yaw then you probably could just add another top to it and with a pivot piont in the middle and put in a couple of adjusting bolts on each side. You know what I mean.
I think it would even be cheaper to just set up and use a Doolin adjustable neck joint if you are not set on fixed necks.

Hey Chris, I just finished one with a Doolin type adjustable neck. It works well and I would like to develop the method further but I'm wondering about the return on investment if you're going to sell the guitars. It takes a fair amount of extra work and I don't see that many players asking for an adjustable neck, obviously not from me, I just started building, but in the forums and magazines. For now I think I want to move forward with a straight bolt-on M/T joint for the next 3. After that I may give a butt joint a try like Mario's (aka Grumpy).

I expect Jon's jig will help me get more guitars under my belt then, if I feel it's needed, I can build or buy something that better suits what I want to do. If the yaw adjustment is an issue then, like you said, I'll cobble something up.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I'll probably just make a jig that is somewhat a combo of all those jigs.