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I'm in the process of building my first classical guitar from the Cumpiano/Natelson book. I have no prior knowledge to classical guitars, besides there basic structure and bracing, so with that being said, here is my problem. My first attempt at a slotted headstock ended in a disaster with a router. When I marked and cut the angle for the sides to join the neck on my second, I rushed and misdrew the angle at 90 degrees to the neck. My top is glued to the neck as of this morning. I've read that classical's can have anywhere from a 0-2 degree angle, and that a way of putting the angle in is when attaching the back. I have a general idea of how that would work, but not a strong enough grasp on how to do it. Is there still hope or am I just going to have to make an undersized bridge?

Thanks in advance to any help.

Classicals normally have the neck angle in the opposite direction from a steel string guitar. That is they have a negative neck angle. But, some folks don't like to build with a negative neck angle so they build with no neck angle, like you did, and then plane an angle into the fingerboard. That is, the nut end of the fingerboard is thicker than the bridge end. That's what I would do if I found myself in your situation and it's a perfectly reasonable way to build.

John

Thanks John. That puts my mind to rest. Guess it was a lot of useless worrying.

How is your top doming. If you built only a very low dome, you might end up with a clunky bridge and a tall saddle even if you taper the FB a lot.

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Build log

John & Alexandru have given you great advise.
A negative angle does cause problems in older guitars-or new ones with to much angle.
I've fixed 100's of Spanish guitars that the saddle could NOT be lowered because of string angle being so low that the strings just buzzed across the saddle.
The top pulls up-the neck pulls forward and the action goes to heck !

Get your body together-put some pieces of wood ,or your f.b. onto the neck to similate the final glue up.
Also compensate for fret height ,and string height from the 12th fret !

If you find that your bridge saddle will be more that 11-12mm from the top then do what ever you need to bring the saddle height down.
Plane the f.b.to a taper-etc.

10mm is great for classicals-8mm for Flamencos !

I hope this helps ya !
This is the place to be for guitarmakers !

Mike
Mike

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Mike Collins

Hi Mike,

Sorry for hijacking the thread,
in your opnion, what's the best way for remedying the guitar with too much forward angle?
Shave down the bridge or add a wedge beneath the fingerboard?
Or is there a better way?
Thanks.

Sen

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Sen CL Goh
http://senguitar.blogspot.com

Thanks everyone for your replies/ The Cumpiano book is great, but sometimes I feel like it doesn't discuss the big picture. You guys have really helped with that. Thanks again! I may be asking for help further down the line, but for now I feel like I can move forward with confidence again.

Mike-

Is that 10mm without frets? Or calculating total height with frets?

Mike is talking about the distance between strings and guitar top, the same as total height of bridge+saddle.

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Build log

Sorry...Should read more carefully next time.