Official Luthiers Forum!

hello all.

I have finally started to work on my guitar again after a few weeks of being busy with work & a few other issues.


I have made a pretty nice 5 piece neck blank (mahogany/maple/rosewood/maple/mahogany which I must say I am quite proud of (except the headstock angle could have been 1-2 degrees more.


I am making a standard parlour style guitar. However, I have no idea where to start with actually thinking about how long my neck needs to be... I have a great book which I use for technical stuff, but it implies I am making a dreadnought or OM size guitar. I know it will be 12 frets to the neck but the whole thing with scale length etc is going right over my head at the moment. My plans aren't particularly detailed in terms of the neck. The last thing I want to do is cut off the end of the neck blank to make the heel and glue it in the wrong place.


Any advice or links to pictures would be great.

First, what is your scale-length?
Somewhere in your plans will be the distance from the nut-line (or the nut) to the twelfth fret. The end of the fretboard and the nut-line are the same thing. If all else fails, the twelfth fret is half the scale-length from the nut-line. That is not exactly right but it is close enough at this point.

Good luck.

Bob

Make a full scale drawing of what you plan to build or buy a plan. You can measure right off your full scale plan. Purchased plans can be a little tricky to measure from as drafters sometimes take short cuts and/or the printing scale isn't right.
You really need to have an accurate plan/drawing of what you are building and should have that before you start building.
You should not trust any numbers that someone here might give you without being able to verify it against your plan.
BTW - What is you scale length?

_________________
"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

What I would do is determine where my nut will be, then place the nut where it belongs, put my fret board against the nut and mark where the 12th fret is at the neck. This will be where your heel ends and your tennon (if thats what you are using) starts. Maybe some of the more experienced guys could explain it better, but thats what I would do.

Tim

Like Tim said, determine the nut position, and then use the fingerboard to define the length. If you haven't already made, and slotted the fingerboard it's time. I pretty much lay out an entire guitar off the fingerboard.

_________________
I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said.
http://www.brackettinstruments.com/

As Tim said, just remember to leave room on the neck blank extending beyond the body join for whatever type tenon you are using. Don't cut your blank off at the 12th fret.

Also what I do with my necks is make a posterboard template. Starting with a centerline I mark my nut width on the top, measure out my total length to the saddle(length of nut to 12th fret X 2) and mark that. Draw lines from the edges of the nut to the saddle and this will give you the neck dimensions and fret board size, and where your saddle will be before compensation.


Tim

Thanks for the advice. I haven't cut the fingerboard yet so I guess that Is my next job. I have a very rough plan of the guitar which I can use. If I need more help I'll come back soon

Peter-
As others have said, it's absolutely necessary to draw out 'the basics' in a simple plan- both 'top' and 'side' views showing the fingerboard with the 12th and the FB end shown, nut, neck-body join line, soundhole, saddle position and bridge.
This is all straight-line stuff, mostly, and will clarify a lot of issues like neck angle, position of braces in relation to bridge and other questions. Even if you have a 'good' set of plans this is a useful (for me, necessary) exercise.

You did not mention whether you have the top or 'box' started, yet. If you have, then the decisions you have already made - bracing and soundhole- will determine the scale length, # of frets, etc to some extent.

This stuff is not all 'voodoo', though it may seem like it at first.

A couple of hours spent with posterboard, straightedge, scale, and drafting triangle will pay off in avoiding problems later.

Also, deciding on your neck-body joining method early on is important- quite a few builders use a butt joint with bolts, without tenon, with excellent results.
Scroll down this page at Mario Proulx' excellent site:http://www.proulxguitars.com/buildup/build9.htm

Cheers
John

Right after emailing the guy who made my plans he clarified that the scale length is 616mm (roughly 24"). Is there an easy way to work out the fret spacing? also, on average how thick is the fingerboard. I have several guitars already, all have quite drastic differences in fingerboard thickness.

Thanks again.

Peter-
For fingerboard layout, try WFret.
ftp://mimf.com/pub/wfret.zip
If you do a search here in 'Wfret' or similar you will find info on using it, making fret cutting templates, jigs,etc.

Fingerboard thickness is not that critical- don't start too thin or you won't have any leeway for planing/straightening and the like. (Do you have a fingerboard blank already? You could consider buying a pre-slotted fingerboard, if that fits with your building style.) Again, you must take the FB thickness into account when figuring how to set the neck angle to get good action with a 'normal' bridge and saddle height. Back to that drawing!

Cheers
John

That's a nice little program to work out fret spacing thanks a lot.

Looking at the old drawing I believe it says 6mm thickness for the fb.

Thanks again.