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hey folks, i finally started making my first electric guitar and i cut out the neck today. I'm wondering how deep the groove should be for the trussrod. im making a strat without a seperate fretboard so it has to go through the back.

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" Blues is a low down achin chill, if you ain't never had it, I hope you never will."

Robert Johnson

The old skunk stripe, eh...

Well, typicall fretboard thicknesses range from about 0.1875 - 0.25" at the crown at the nut. Electrics tend to run a little thinner for a faster neck. Depending on how thick your neck is, I would measure it, subract about 0.1875" from that number, and set the resulting value to your router depth...that should get you where you want to be.

After you have put in your truss rod, and see how thick the skunk strip is, it will give you an idea of how much thinner you can carve your neck, should you want to - as you should have a rough minimum of 0.125" material under the truss rod as well.

Hope this helps,
Stephen

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www.ziegenfussguitars.com

Set your truss rod to leave at least .100" of filler strip over the rod @ fret 7 , so carving the profile is not too scary.
You also have to work the entry and exit hole angles to align with the rod depth.

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How long is that in luthyears?