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Hi

Has anyone built the guitar form the Alex Willis book, Step by Step?

Alex uses the Spanish Heel method for a steel string guitar, there is a section in the book which describes how he attaches the neck to the soundboard. He shims the neck on the solera to introduce an angle. There is no mention of cutting the block to an angle. It seems very strange.

On futher investigation ther seems to be very little information on spanish heel and steel string guitars.

I would welcome a discussion and the benfit of your experience.

John

Hi John;
I built my first few steel strings with a Spanish heel. The set angle is established by cutting the side slots at a 1 1/2 to 2 degree angle. Fine tuning the neck angle is done by shimming the neck up into the correct position before gluing on the back.
The instructions I used said to raise the neck 3/32" at the nut position. I found this insufficient & had to make fairly thin bridges to compensate. If you are doming the top, you will need to go even higher.
Having done a few of these, I can't imagine ever doing it again. The bolt-on neck, mortise & tenon system works so well I'm gonna stick with it... unless something much better comes along.
Future neck re-sets will require major surgery with a Spanish heel, whereas a bolt-on can be changed relatively easily.

Hi Dan

Adjusting the neck angle before setting the back makes sense and so does cutting an angle slots for the ribs. I will re check the book to see if there is reference to this.

I was keen to try a steel /spanish heel method and I still may try this one day. One thing that occurred to me was using a binding jig could be difficult once the neck it in place !

John

Hi John,

I built my first 8 steel strings with a Spanish joint.

I would not reccomend this joint for two main reasons:

1) Future neck resets (I've done it-not fun-very "messy" ).
2) Much more work to bind the guitar with the neck in the way.

I have just bought this book myself, mainly as you get free detailed plans with it. I haven't really done much more than flick through it yet though. I'm going to be using the plans provided for #2, except I will be using a mould rather than a solera, oh and of course I WONT be using BRW...

I too am reading this book. I don't really get how one would adjust the neck angle. Perhaps you cut those side slots a bit big, or end up doing it later when you reset it ?

I built my first guitar with David Freeman, who uses the Spanish method with both classicals and steel string guitars, like that shown in Willis (2006) and Williams (1986). I've used the method ever since, and while there are some quirks that one must accept, I don't see any reason to change. I have numerous notes on setting neck rake in my original notebook, but it's easier to refer you to the article from David's presentation at the 2008 GAL Convention (Freeman 2009).

I've got Willis' book and find it very detailed on some aspects, and incredibly vague on others. Willis simply sets the neck rake of the guitar built from his plan at 4mm, but if you read David's article, you'll learn how to set it on ANY guitar.

Responding to a couple of points raised earlier in the thread:
I cut my side slots on a table saw with a thin-kerf blade (see Luthier Tips du Jour on topic), and I cut them at 90° for all instruments. The rake of about 2° is introduced for a steel string by shimming the neck on the solera to a calculated height at the nut. This very slight distorts the sides, but it is undetectable. The rake is "locked" in when the back is glued on. The neck rake will cause the fingerboard to have a very slight gap over the body. WIllis describes filling this with a thin wedge, but I don't bother. This is an area of the top which tends to move on its own to decrease the effect so that it is not noticeable.

I use a Williams-style binding router jig, and it doesn't have an issue with a Spanish construction, and I don't find "binding "much more difficult". I've not had to do a neck reset on any of my guitars -- I think the Spanish heel is much less prone to movement, because there is NO joint -- it's solid!

The only time I curse the Spanish heel is during the finishing process, where I spend a lot of time fussing with leveling and polishing near the heel with the neck already attached.

Hope this helps a bit.

Freeman, D. 2009. Building for playability. American Lutherie 99: 6-11, 51.
Williams, J. 1986. A guitar maker's manual. Guitarcraft, Dudely, NSW Australia. 104 p.
Willis, A. 2006. Step-by-step guitar making. Fox Chapel Publishing. 144 p.