The 3D-printed noogies above are the hard points at the body end of the neck where the string tension and vibrational energy of the string’s motion is passed into the guitar’s body. These noogies are rendered in stainless steel, and the layer-cake appearance is typical of 3D printed parts. The strings’ tension captures the ball end of the neck pocket set screws in a tight tapered grip, a modified ball-and-socket joint.

The basic noogie design is a modified 3/8” (10 mm) dowel, so in a pinch you could get some hardware store 3/8” metal dowel, and with a hacksaw, bastard file, hand-drill and some elbow grease make your own. Noogies can easily be designed into a neck design modeled as a pair of 3/8” vertical holes into the neck shaft where it meets the body before the fingerboard is glued on. The noogies only use half of their drilled hole, so that they can easily be popped out and replaced if needed.

The distance between the noogies’ center axes needs to be accurate to +/- 1mm or so. Their longitudinal offset requires an accuracy of only +/- 2mm or so, because the neck pocket’s micrometer set screws can be individually adjusted by that amount to make up for the inaccuracy. Easy low-precision hand-fabrication, followed by easy, robust and precise adjustment. That is the Ridgewing way.

In this close-up you can see the dark skid marks made by the ball-end of the neck pocket micrometer set screws as the neck is being assembled onto the body, where they ride up the noogie’s contact surface and finally “click” into their respective sockets.