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I’ve recently had the opportunity to buy a used set of the variable mortise and tenon routing and drilling, and the neck angle, jigs from Elevate Lutherie. Could others share what they think about these compared to the much larger “tower” style jigs available from LMI/O’Brien and LuthierTool?

Clearly they work by different techniques. I’m interested b/c of the apparent simplicity and the small size and easy storing.

Are there any issues to consider where the other neck jigs might be a better option.

I've had the LMI and LuthierTool jigs.

I have a love/hate with the LMI. It's pretty cost effective, but the tenon is about 1/16" oversized for the mortis. They say it's so you can do a bit of hand work to get a perfect joint, but that's a lot of material to remove and a lot of opportunity to introduce error.

I've been pretty interested in the Elevate. My only hesitance is that I'm not sure how to find the angle other than trial and error, and I'm not sure how to mount it to my belt sander.

The fastest and easiest method for me is: cut tenon on the table saw, then use a simple jig (mine is shop made) to route mortise in body. What I like about it is that by tilting the saw blade a couple degrees when cutting the cheeks you can also undercut them to aid neck fitting, which saves on a little chisel work later.

Since I started doing it this way my (tower style) neck jig is mothballed - it’s accurate but too slow to setup vs 4 cuts/1 minute on the table saw, which is always ready to go.

Amazed to hear that the LMI jig requires significant further material removal after routing. I’d ask for a refund, if you can’t route straight to an nice fit with an expensive jig, what’s the point? Use a handsaw.

I have never used the Elvevate jig but looks great and being able to drill for hardware with the same setup may be a timesaver. Everything I’ve ever seen from Elevate has been top quality.


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I've used both the LMI style jig and the Elevate jig. Like James says, with the LMI that extra 1/16" on the tenon is an awful lot of material to remove. I like the Elevate jig except for one thing--it requires a pattern following bit instead of using a smaller bit and a bushing like on the LMI. In order to make the cuts in several passes, I ended up using a couple of different pattern bits so that the jig itself was the guide instead of following wood that I'd already routed. I've nicked the Elevate jig too. I definitely prefer the bushing of the LMI.

Dave

James, other than the LuthierTool jig clearly being even less cost effective, do you have any thoughts about this one?

Thanks

I think a lot of folks have built their own. Mine stemmed from the Fox course many moons ago but I have seen the same concept in many permutations. It has a movable platform with pins that key into the truss rod slot and the indicator bar shows the angle of the neck to the flat top of the jig. I used the StewMac templates. They leave a little wiggle room.
After the body is trued up I use a long goniometer with a trial bridge in position to determine the neck angle I want using a 1/4" piece of wood to mimic the fretboard. Transfer that angle to the jig and rout the tenon.

Not nearly as elegant as some of the available designs from vendors but it gets the job done and after using it a few times you can dial it in pretty close. There still always seems to be an hour or two with sandpaper strips getting it perfect as I have a curved upper bound there is a little rocking with a tapered heel. The arch tops with a flat surface and straight heel are a lot easier.

IMG_5300 by Terence Kennedy, on Flickr

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I only used it for one guitar and don’t remember the experience well enough to comment on it. I spent some time on the phone talking through the process with Chris, watched his videos, and don’t remember struggling with the actual use of it too much.

As far as build quality goes, there’s just nothing like owning a jig from LuthierTool. I don’t think anyone minds the price point as soon as they handle one in person. I don’t build with great frequency, so for my purposes I decided to let it go to another member of this forum, picked up the LMI, and re-invested the balance in something else.


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I’m the one who bought James’ LuthierTool neck angle jig. I bought it specifically for dovetail joints, and for that, I can say that it is my favorite of the several designs I tried.

If a person is building with a bolted mortise and tenon, the LuthierTool jig will do great on those, but so will several ways of doing it. If I were just building this way, I would probably consider the LuthierTool jig as unnecessarily expensive (for me). It is the ability to be very precise with dovetails where the jig really earns its extra cost. Again, just my take on it.

I still use the Simpson jig that I bought on here quite a few years ago. Auction I think? It's two jigs. One for the neck angle and tenon or dovetail and the other for the body mortise. I like it. https://youtu.be/v-uILpnd9kw

The best neck angle jig is the one you can use and get the right result each time.

I spent an inordinate amount of time with test necks and the LuthierTool jig. So that’s the best one for me.


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