How Deep Should a Neck Pocket Be?

[BlackMastodon]

Hey folks, i have a question that I tried answering myself but I wanted the input of all the smart people on this forum.

So, how deep should a neck pocket be? I know it's actually arbitrary, but the real important question actually is: how much neck material (including fretboard) should be left sticking above the surface of the guitar?

I drew it out in Sketchup of what I think would work well and ended up just have the fretboard material above the surface of the body. Taking a look at my guitars, everyone of them shows off a bit of the neck material, though, almost as much as the fretboard's thickness at the end.

Is there an easy answer to this question?

The dimensions I used can be seen in the drawing, but for reference dimensions, I used a Hipshot 7 bridge (http://www.hipshotproducts.com/files/all/41150-2d.pdf), a .060 guitar string, and jumbo fretwire from StewMac (0.110" wide, 0.53" crown when unleveled). I also added the ed of the fretboard to see what the lowest dimension of the side would be.

How do you guys decide how much of the neck should be sticking above the guitar body to give you decent action and enough wiggle room with the saddles?

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Enough to accommodate neck angle and hardware chosen. There's no real special number.

Just be sure to leave enough wiggle room to account for a neck with relief.

 

[TuffyKohler]

Yup. The decision is a sum of parts and design...

Hipshot makes 2 different thickness bridges as well... And you can recess them if you chose to...
And how thick is your fretboard? Mine are thicker than 'typical'.

I try to take all these factors into account, and shoot for the middle, allowing for adjustment in both directions in the saddles/bridge.

I did have to order a tall Hipshot bridge to take care of a neck that I did end up having a little too tall for my liking, the saddles were at their highest possible adjustment with the lowest action barely reachable. The thicker Hipshot bridge solved that particular problem.

 

[Hywel]

Half the time I end up shimming my necks so I won't offer any advice

This might be useful though.

 

[Deegatron]

I used a hipshot bridge on my last build and found it to be very low (requiring the fretboard only to be above the body height)

so yeah, your on the right track unless you decide to use a different bridge or the taller hipshot.

 

[HaMMerHeD]

I leave 3/32" - 1/8" (2.4mm - 3.2mm) of neck wood above the body surface, not including the fingerboard of course. After gluing, I plane my neck beams to 13/16" final thickness (~20.5mm), so that means the pocket needs to be 11/16" deep (~17.5mm).

 

[BlackMastodon]

And how thick is your fretboard? Mine are thicker than 'typical'.

My example above uses a pre-radiused fretboard from LMII, they say it's about a quarter inch at the thickest part, and with a 20" radius that leaves about 0.207" according to the drawing.

And thanks for the input guys. I was really hoping that there was an easier answer that was a bit more standard, but it does make sense that it has to take into account bridge base plate height, saddle height, fretboard thickness, fret height, neck relief, etc.

I do think that 1/8" of neck wood is a pretty safe bet, especially with ~1/4" fretboard. And it isn't uncommon to recess a bridge a little bit if it is too high. So that's probably what I'll shoot for.

 

[StarbardGuitar]

There are already some great answers here, but my general rule of thumb is that your neck pocket should be just deep enough so that when you bottom out the saddles on your bridge, the strings should be resting on the frets or maybe just slightly above. Just make sure you still have plenty of adjustability upwards so that your action can be relatively high if it needs to be.

If you follow this, you should get the most usable adjustability out of your saddles in terms of action.