Neck Angle on mini electric

[nor]

The neck angle is usually determined by the type of bridge used. A Tune-o-Matic or non-recessed Floyd require a steeper angle, as they sit higher off the guitar.

[EvDog]

Neck Angle on mini electric

I'm hoping you guys can help with this question.

Saturday I bought my daughter her first guitar. We got a Samick MAV 1 which is a mini les paul style guitar. It's a pretty nice guitar. Has 1 hum, and sounds decent.

The question is, the neck is a bolt-on, and while playing it Saturday night, I noticed that the neck where it joins the body is actually thicker than the body of the guitar, and that the neck looks like it is set in at an angle. The end of the fretboard, is actually not touching the body of the guitar at all.

I don't know why I didn't notice this in the store, but could this be that since the guitar's scale is smaller that the neck is set at an angle to maintain the proper string tension for normal tuning ? Or is this a manufacturing defect ? Seems like it would be a pretty big defect for the inspector to miss.

The guitar seemed to play fine after I stretched the strings out. I've lowered the bridge, and I need to set the intonation again, but I want to make sure that if it's defective, I return it.

Thanks !

[EvDog]

Re: Neck Angle on mini electric

Yes, it is a Tune-O-Matic bridge. I guess I should have mentioned that in my first post..

I restrung the guitar yesterday with D'Addario XL120's (9-42), and the guitar tunes up, and checking the intonation, the strings are pretty close at the 12th fret to the open note, but a couple of open chords sound terrible. It also doesn't seem to stay in tune real well even after I stretched the strings out.

[EvDog]

Re: Neck Angle on mini electric

The Squire Mini-strat was the other one I was going to get if I ended up returning the Samick. That sucks. I need a small guitar for my daughter. All my guitars are way to big for her.

I'm gonna mess with it again tonight, I was getting tired of messing with it after stringing it last night.

One other thought, when I re-strung last night, it seems like the slots in the nut for the strings need to be cut deeper/wider. The strings don't slip out or anything, but it almost seems as if the strings are sitting on top of the nut instead of going through it. Could that be causing problems ?

[ May 13, 2003, 01:04 PM: Message edited by: EvDog ]

[Black Mariah]

Re: Neck Angle on mini electric

The problem is that they're cheap ass guitars with a hideously short scale length. You probably won't ever get good intonation out of them. If all else fails, intonate it so the open chords sound fine and screw the rest of the neck.

The angle has to be there otherwise the strings would be a half an inch off the fretoard. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] A guitar with a ToM needs a 3-5 degree neck angle to have even string height due to the height of the bridge.

[80sRock]

Re: Neck Angle on mini electric

Mind you the Mini Strat does not sound total crappy. It actually sounds pretty good. It just won't go in perfect tune. It is good enough to learn on. And I have a good time playing it also.

[EvDog]

Re: Neck Angle on mini electric

I was adjusting it again tonight. With 2 different tuners, the each string is pretty close open to 12th fret, and some chords are okay, the rest sound horrible. Also, the jack is already shorting out on me..

I know they're cheap guitars, and I'm not expecting perfection, but for my money, I at least want something playable. I think I'm gonna return this one, and either try one of the Squire mini-strats, or check out the Daisy Rock guitars, which is what my daughter likes.

BM- Makes sense. I just looked at my Epi Les Paul closely, and it's neck is set at an angle to the body, but they don't leave the fretboard sticking up off the body.

[80sRock]

Re: Neck Angle on mini electric

I wonder if it is just those mini guitars. I have a Squire Mini Strat which I think are made by Samick or in theur factory and I can not get it to intonate.

[BigDaddyD]

Re: Neck Angle on mini electric

Why not look at an old Erlwine Chicquita...they were pretty good. Or perhaps a Fernandes nomad.

[Black Mariah]

Re: Neck Angle on mini electric

The fingerboard is above the body on most bolt-ons I've seen. If not it can lead to some problems with the fingerboard contacting the body causing the tongue of the board to actually lift resulting in fret buzz or even in some cases the fretboard pulling up from the neck. It hurts to see that on a $1000 guitar, believe me. [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

[EvDog]

Re: Neck Angle on mini electric

Well,

We ended up taking the guitar back tonight. We could only get store credit, so we decided to look and see what else we could find for my daughter.

We ended up getting a Fender Stratacoustic. It's got a 25.5" scale length, but the neck doesn't seem as long as on my Jackson's or a Strat. Maybe because the bridge is way back on the body.

It's a pretty nice guitar. Maple neck, rosewood fretboard, and the body is only like 3" thick, so it's not a problem for her to hold onto. We tried it a little bit, and she was able to fret notes on the first fret without a problem. The action is pretty low for any acoustic. The strings on it are 12-52, but I'm going to restring, either with light acoustics, or I may even try putting some .009 size electric strings on it. It has a Fishman Classic preamp onboard.

I plugged it into my Line6 Flextone on a clean setting, added a little reverb, and got a nice bright, full tone from it. I even put on a patch of the Line6 model of a Soldano X88R with the gain cranked that I use for my Soloist, and as long as the guitars preamp volume was way down, I got a really nice distorted sound from it.

I'm a lot happier with this guitar, and she says she likes it so now I its time for me to start teaching her how to play it.

The only problem now is that with looking at all these guitars, is that I want another one for myself. Perhaps I need another Soloist. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[The Enema]

Re: Neck Angle on mini electric

probabyl a bit late in saying but ive heard a few good things about daisyrock guitars

how much more metal do you get than a girl sized guitar in the shape of a daisy or a heart

rock and roll indeed

David