Official Luthiers Forum!

I'm currently fitting the necks to the bodies of two twelve strings. However, I need information on how much of a neck angle I should shoot for. If I lay a straight edge along the fretted fingerboard, how far should it be above the bridge. On six strings, I usually like it to be a tad more than the 5/16 thickness of the bridge. However, I have no experience with 12 strings for this measurement. If I'm using light guage strings, can someone offer a suggestion for this measurement based on their own experience? Thanks.

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Under Compensated Nut!

if you are doing Martin Style 1 1/2 degree.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

I set mine exactly the same as a 6 string - approx 1/16" above the top of the bridge with both bolt on and dovetail joints. You are looking at about 250-60 pounds of tension with 10-47's at concert or 12-54's at D

Freeman, do you mean 1/16" above the bridge with the frets in or with the unfretted board?

"12-54's at D"?

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"Preoccupation with an effect gives it power and enhances the error"
from "Your Owner's Manual" by Burt Hotchkiss.

Darrel, I set all of my neck angles so a straightedge on the fretted board just barely clears the top of a normal 3/8 bridge. Under tension the end of the strightedge might be touching the bridge or still a bit over it. That gives me somewhere around 1/8+ of saddle as a starting point. That is where Bryan Kimsey set the neck on my old D12-28 and that is the way I built my dovetail OM-12. On my Stella clone I used a bolt on and did not glue the fretboard extension for a couple of months as I was experimenting with strings and tunings. After two years the straight edge is now sitting exactly on top of the bridge.

If you haven't already routed the saddle slot consider making it extra wide which will give you more room to compensate each string of each course - saddle ends up looking like a rip saw blade but its worth the work.



From the UMGF String Tension FAQ. I downtune all of my 12 strings at least two half steps (the Stella clone is currently in C with some pretty fat strings).

Martin Marquis 12-String 80/20 Bronze Light Acoustic Strings
.012/.012 .016/.016 .025/.010 .032/.014 .042/.020 .054/.030
Standard tuning: 330 lbs.
1 halfstep down: 294 lbs.
2 halfsteps down: 262 lbs.

Note that different string manufacturers use different nomenclature for 12 string sets ' "lights" are frequently 10-47 but not alway. I always check the gauges and sometimes make my own sets.

Thanks Freeman. I'm getting close to done on my first 12 string. A straightedge laid on the fretted board sits about 1/16" above the bridge, so sounds like I'm in the ballpark. It seems that on 6 string instruments, that people try to achieve more or less the same thing with an unfretted board, say touching or barely clearing the bridge. I plan to use extra lights strung at concert pitch.