Thanks for the encouragement. I have made several fanned fret necks shorter on the treble side (see Novack's article on scale length and clang tone). But my friend ask me to build him one with the opposite fanning. His thinking was that sonic subtleties will likely be lost on this instrument (cough cough...), and there may be an ergonomic advantage to reverse fanning (that low F bar chord is a little more work on a normal fanned fret neck). So I though, why not. I believe it was Rick Toone who was pointing out that there is no reason the fanning has to be symmetrical from the center of the neck (12th fret). So you could fan the bottom more than the top which might be a happier medium.
I still need to fine tune the nut and the 'bridge nut', but just playing it really quickly it felt ok. Playing a G chord was a little strange. I will have to give it a little more time.
I have one more box guitar halfway built that I need to finish (gifts for friends), then I am going to jump in and try building my first archtop jazz guitar. I have been practicing wood bending. I also want to practice dovetails. I have been reading Benedetto's book. I am thinking I will make it headless and fanned fret, so I will need some kind of bridge tuner solution. Seems to me, I usually need to make an instrument about three times before I have something with enough quality to give to a friend. So I might as well get started.
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