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I've finally made some progress on my fan fret baritone and am realizing a few questions.

Due to some additional neck flattening that had to happen, I've stretched my neck. It is now waiting on a nut about a half inch wide along the direction of the string path. Any problems with that I haven't thought of? Also, any thoughts on where to get a wide wide nut blank?

Finally, what about compensation? It's a 27"-29" scale. Will that be similar to my regular guitars' compensation, or does the added length or string weight effect it significantly?

While designing the bridge, I wondered if I should offset the bridge pins to counteract the increased off axis press of the saddle. Is a single saddle ok, or should I do some sort of funk stepped bridge to keep the tension forces more in line?

Thanks for your thoughts.

Mike

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Mike Lindstrom

Mike, in searching for "baritone compensation", I came across this post, and was disappointed to see that no one replied, cause I have the very same question.

Now that it's been a few months, can you comment on your own findings? The Stewmac calculator I used for my 28" gave me a saddle angle difference between treble and bass of .138", as opposed to .125" for a 25.4" scale. What's more confusing, their saddlematic calls for a saddle angle difference of 3/32", or .094 for a 25.4" scale.

Now add in to the equation that I compensated my nut .024" towards the bridge, and I'm a tad confused about where I should set the pointers on the Saddlematic, given that it references off the nut. I guess I should go with the angle difference given by the calculator, but add the .024" back to both pointers...

Sometimes it helps just to write things out, but any thoughts or insights on this would be appreciated.

Ken

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Mountain Song Guitars www.mountainsongguitars.com

I have built quite a few baritones now, and use the following - if you compensate the nut, then you need less compensation at the saddle - this came from a post by Mike Collins - the repair guy .... I set the high string scale length back from the leading edge of the saddle slot by .5 - 1 mm, and then set the bass string comp at about 4-5mm to the middle of the slot. I also use a 3/16 saddle width, so you then have lots fo room to get the comp dialled in. If your bridge will be mounted on an agle, then figure out that angle and adjust the pins spacing accordingly, or you will end up with a narrower than planned string spread. With the angle I use, I generally have to add about 2-3 mm across the spread to get back to my std of 56-57mm.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"