Official Luthiers Forum!

I'm curious how you determine what angle to use when trimming the heel to the proper length to fit the body of the guitar. You could go 90deg to the heel face but it looks odd to me. You can try to match the angle of the fretboard but it's not a lot different. You can try to match the back (which seems like it would look nice) but the back is a radius and not really a defined angle so how does one decide which angle to use that will look nice?

So I'm curious what the lutheirs here do and why.

Thanks!

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

If I am understanding the question, you are asking about the angle of the bottom of the heel (the part that gets capped). I think I prefer to have the angle match the back (even if it is not flush to the back). I wouldn’t worry too much about the back actually being a radius, the heel cap is so small and the radius of the back so large that close should look fine.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

So if you want to match the back, what method do you use to determine the angle to make the cut?

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

Eyeball.

What Barry said. I tried to use the sliding bevel gauge once but the heel was mostly carved and had been fitted to the body. It was too much of a pain to find a surface to register against. I suppose if you had the body done and bound while the neck was still pretty square it would work buy I never find myself in that situation. If you want it flush, you could cut it close by eye and level the cap with the back. It may not end up 100% constant thickness, but I doubt you would notice. Now that I think about it, if it lines up well with the binding and gets slightly thinner tapering to the point of the heel, that would look nice too. As long as the end of the cap isn’t noticeably thicker that the body side, it should look fine.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

The way I learned from Sergei de Jonge is to use a straight edge with a notch in it. The straight part sits on the back and allows you to find the general angle of the back. The notch is how far off set you want it so that the heel isn't flush with the back.

Personally, I set mine to 10º. Looks nice. I like it.

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ELEVATE || Next Level Lutherie
http://elevatelutherie.com

I've used a sliding bevel to find a pretty close approximation of the angle the back would take if extended out over the heel cap. Then transferred that angle onto the the heel itself. Cut the angle on the table saw with a sliding mitre gauge. This is done while the neck is still square and before you glue on the fretboard or add any wings to the headstock (if you add them). Make sense?

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sweat the small stuff.

I cut it at a right angle to the cheeks. Looks good to me. Kind of between the angle of the back and fretboard. I freehand the rough cut on the bandsaw and fine tune the angle and length on this belt sander jig that references off the cheeks. It looks kind of dorky but it works great! You can also shim the jig to change the angle if desired.

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

Like has been said, I like it to be parallel to a continuation of the back radius.

Chuck

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Me too, I cut it so as it looks like it's at the same angle where the back meets heel when viewed from the side of the guitar.
I cut mine to a depth from the back that matches the depth of the side purfling underneath the binding, then add some veneers under the heel cap that match the purfling, if done well, it creates the look that the purfling continues around the neck heel.

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http://www.bobmatthewsguitars.co.uk

Of course, to us classical guys it's just a continuation of whatever the back is doing. The recess on steel string guitars looks strange to me now.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

i'm with the guys that follow the back - either by eye balling it, or by laying the long stewmac fretboard ruler on the back (with the guitar lying face down on the bench, neck attached) and marking where it hangs along side the heel.

I use 5 degrees .... slightly more than the curve of the back

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

+1 5 degrees

Thanks for the responses everyone!

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......