Correct stock neck angle?

I recently acquired a used MIM 2002 Nashville. The neck SLIGHTLY tilts forward toward the bridge going into the neck pocket. (I'm not referring to the normal neck bow, btw, I'm talking about the neck pocket area.)

Is this normal? Or should the fretboard be perfectly level/parallel to the body at the neck pocket area? I don't have another Tele around for reference at the moment.

If it's an issue, I guess a shim is the common fix.

Thanks a lot,
Charles

You might already have a shim in there that's messing you up. But you didn't tell us how the guitar plays right now, how high the action is, how high the saddles, how much relief in the truss rod, etc.

Check out some of the detailed steps here of setting up your guitar; you can expect to take the guitar through the whole process if there's anything like that about it that seems wrong, most particularly if it is spoiling the way the guitar plays or sounds.

A few photos would be most telling. It would be very helpful to see the saddle height. That alone will tell alot. It could be a rare, mis-cut neck heel causing the problem too. Lets have a look at those saddles first. Then we can comment.

Well, here's the picture: Low action up to about the 7th fret, then medium-low up to around 12th fret, then starting to get high from 12th fret on. Saddles are set high. A couple on the bass side are almost maxed out. Seems like there's plenty of saddle room (for lowering) for proper setup, which I have not had done yet.

However, beyond problems/playability issues, I'm just wondering if the neck/fretboard is supposed to be perfectly parallel to the body at the neck pocket or if there's supposed to be a slight forward/downward pitch.

I've had three other Teles in the past and I don't think I ever even checked the neck angles that closely, so I don't remember what the deal was.

What do your guitars look like in comparison?

CharlesM-

Neck pockets are "flat" in a tele- meaning that without shims the neck is parallel to the body, barring the odd mistake in the pocket or the neck heel. I'd venture a guess that half of the Tele's and tele-styles out there have shims in them to angle the neck. I use a lot of T-O-M style bridges, so these generally need shims.

Well, here's the picture: Low action up to about the 7th fret, then medium-low up to around 12th fret, then starting to get high from 12th fret on. Saddles are set high. A couple on the bass side are almost maxed out.


Without pictures, I'll take a chance... without that saddle height low positions would buzz...

There's too much shim, and/or not enough relief in the neck?

Low action up to about the 7th fret, then medium-low up to around 12th fret, then starting to get high from 12th fret on. Saddles are set high.

what i'm hearing is that it's a steady upward action slope from the nut to the last fret. to me, that's a classic case of needing a shim toward the bridge end of the pocket. but if the saddles are already maxed out in height at that neck angle, something's weird. what happens when you lower your action -- where do you start getting fret buzz first?

might be worth getting a competent guitar tech to check it out.

I took the guitar to a small local shop today with very reputable area guitar techs and the tech said it's normal. He said all it needs is a good setup.

Every Tele I looked at in their store had the same thing going on--the appearance of an almost imperceptible downward pitch of the neck going into the neck pocket. I saw this on everything from recent Am. Stds. to American vintage reissues to real vintage (early '70s) to Custom Shops. Maybe I am seeing optical illusions.

Anyway, I'm convinced I was just in post-Ebay-purchase paranoia...which can be understandable, can't it? Lots of :twisted: out there.

Thanks a lot for the help!

When you say "action" are you talking about the static string height above the fret? If so, as you progress up the fret board, the "action" necessarily has to be higher. To what degree is determined by many factors. If the string height above the frets were constant for the entire fret board, you're gonna have more problems than "buzz."

Setup is really a pretty easy thing, but... if you don't fully understand the concept... and there's confusion about nomenclature... one could ask and hunt for a long, long time, and never get it figured out. Sometimes it's just easier to take it to someone that can spot the problem right off.

As helpful, and knowledgeable as the folks here are, we all describe stuff a bit differently, and that sometimes leads to the confusion.

When you say "action" are you talking about the static string height above the fret? If so, as you progress up the fret board, the "action" necessarily has to be higher. To what degree is determined by many factors. If the string height above the frets were constant for the entire fret board, you're gonna have more problems than "buzz."

Yep, I'm talking about the normal understanding of "action" here, as you described...string height/proper neck bow/saddle height, etc. The action was not the issue--it can always be properly adjusted barring a twisted neck or other serious problems like that.

I was just interested in knowing what the "normal" state of affairs is supposed to be as far as the neck pocket area.

These days I usually do my own basic setup work, aside from any fretwork, on both my acoustics and electrics. To me, it's just good basic knowledge for any guitarist to be able to set the action properly. Once you understand the concepts behind it, plunking down $75 for someone else to adjust the neck bow/truss rod, saddle height, intonation and restring the thing won't make much sense...again, barring serious issues.

It is possible that the neck actually does slope down at the body frets.

Bolt on necks can sometimes develop a hump and adding a fallaway was originally used to combat this. Other players found that the fallaway allowed a lower action along the rest of the neck so necks started being produced with a fallaway as standard.

If your neck is original it may have been shaved or it could even have had the higher frets shaved slightly lower for the same reason.