Neck angle

The angle at which the neck sits relative to the plane of the body, which determines how high the bridge must sit.

A guitar with an angled neck pocket, as on most set-neck instruments, can use a tall bridge and still keep the strings low over the frets, while a flat-necked bolt-on needs a lower bridge to achieve the same action. If the angle is wrong, the player runs out of adjustment: the bridge cannot go low enough for a comfortable action, or the strings sit too close and buzz. Correcting it on a bolt-on means shimming the pocket, and on a set neck it may mean a neck reset.

Example: A guitar whose bridge has to be raised almost to its limit to stop the strings buzzing probably has too shallow a neck angle.

Neck angle

See also