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IME the further north the soundhole is, or the more spruce there is between bridge and soundhole, the better bass and definition. I also think it is much better structurally, and looks better.
On 14 fret designs I build with 19 frets before the soundhole, 18 frets for 12 fret neck/body joint.
There is nothing wrong with extending your fretboard, or only the treble side of it, above the soundhole BTW.
If it were me I'd shift the neck "in" the body a bit, and gain some frets (again, on the treble side only) above the soundhole.

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

Chris, You might want to lay the X brace out on you drawing and see how it relates to the sound hole position befor you settle on a location for it. Just clancing at your drawing it looks like it would make for a very open X or be crossing the sound hole.
Cool!

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

chris, im not going to be a lot of help, as im just not experienced enough to give much input. i am, however, interested in what you are doing. im also creating my own shape right now and have some of the same questions/concerns.

this number isnt terribly accurate, as its not from an actual OM, but i drew a pretty close representation of an OM in rhino CAD and with a 3.875" soundhole an OM sound board is about 209 sq in. your guitar is pretty small by comparison. thats not necessarily a bad thing, it just depends on what you want to do with it.

what do you want to do with it? electrics, archtops, and acoustics all tend to be pretty different in size and shape. if you like the shape, you could always use a CAD program to scale the shape up to a more practical size while retaining the body proportions.

its a good project. let us know what you change and how it works out.

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sweat the small stuff.

chris, just curious where you got those numbers. do the sound board areas account for a soundhole?

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sweat the small stuff.

understood.

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sweat the small stuff.

To my uneducated eye, and this is purely aesthetically speaking, it looks like the upper bout/cutaway could be stretched out more. It looks disproportionate to the lower bout, but thats just to weird ole me.

How is the neck going to attach?

Worried? Never...

A heel-less contraption springs to mind though.

Look interesting Chris. I really like the electric version of your shape and I'm sure the acoustic will be just as nice. I "like" the idea of having the bridge fall somewhere closer to the center of the lower bout, ala 12 fret necks body styles. (However I can't say that I have any concrete proof that there is any tonal benefit to it.) So, I would prefer the standard scale, or a shorter neck joint. One question, what are you gong to do when someone asks you to build one in curly koa? Those bends look like they will be difficult. Double sides??

I'm actually very drawn to it. It's very nice. And I like the blue binding, btw. I've seen black/blue/black purflings here and there, and they're always very appealing.

Dude, I'd love to. I love seeing this stuff, too. I've never dyed anything. What kind/brand do you like to use?

Chris,

I had a little time to post this morning. Busy week with the family in town!~

I also like the idea of putting the bridge in the middle of the lower bout 'inner circle'. Not that it has to be that way. There are other ways of dealing with the bracing, etc to make a less than [traditonally] ideal placement work just fine. But aesthetically I think it works with this shape.

The only thing I might change is the angle on the lower bout cutaway where it rests on your leg. For an acoustic that will get played sitting down quite often it seems that edge might feel a little tight.

So about the neck joint, are you using the Hollow Dragon concept? Or are you doing something new? The reason I ask is because I have something new in the works and I am curious as to what you might have developed.

~David

Chris that bolt-on style will be cool. It's only an aesthetic thing I have with it but then again I haven't seen one yet so it's all in my head

What I am working on is more of a floating neck concept. I want a neck that does not attach to the top or sides directly and is easily removable. Hard to explain really. I'm chasing another vision of mine. We'll see where it take me...

I haven't used b&w ebony but the pieces I have seen all seem to have diferent shrink rates depending on the grain color. The white part seemed to sink much more than the black. Once it sets for a year or so it seems to be more stable.

~David

This is going to be absolutely ridiculous.. I love it. Can't wait to see it finished. Way to think outside the box.

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Jason McGowan
M&S Guitars
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United States of America, looks like another silent night
As we're sung to sleep by philosophies that save the trees and kill the children....
Casting Crowns

Looks awesome Chris. I really dig the shape and I think you'd have a pretty good cross-over market for it.

Question, why didn't you bind the cut-away area in the tip and back?


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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=49.048631,-122.263950

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"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Nice design and workmanship!

Lots of very nice visual concepts going on in this guitar--and some challenging geometry, too. I really like the way the streaks in your rosette lend some visual weight to the "bass" side upper bout. Ditto on your fingerboard inlay. It echos the curves in the sides very nicely, and leads the eye on up. I am also curious why some of it isn't bound. I'll admit I haven't read each post thoroughly. Perhaps you already explained that choice. Regardless, it looks like a very nicely designed and built instrument to me. It's going to have killer stage appeal.
Patrick

Looks very cool Chris! Good to see it coming together so well. I eagerly await the next chapter. Attaching The Neck.

Yikes - I guess you're feeling kinda blue.

Chris--I've been following your project, and admiring it. The Marlin is a great electric shape. You've done a thoughtful job of translating it to an acoustic. I'll add my vote to those who would move the bridge back a little, but it looks great.

Probably pressure dyeing the binding before assembly would have been the way to go, but we're all pretty good at hindsight, right? At this point, I doubt you'll be able to sand that out. Try bleach. Plain old laundry bleach will do a good job on most dyes. You'll end up bleaching the binding some too, so at best you'll be back where you started. Maybe re-bind?

The lack of binding in the cutaway caught my eye too. I've had good luck binding similar eccentric shapes, by edge setting the binding into a gentle curve on the bending iron, and then bending on the other axis. Concentrate the heat on the inside of the bend, and you can do a surprising amount of edge setting.

I'm delighted to be wrong--looking forward to seeing this strung up.

This is a cool project ! Love the blue bindings, but would have loved to see the whole top blue instead of a busrt. Still looks great though.
Any reason you didn't run bindings in the cutaway area?

I hope it sounds as good as it looks! Fantastic!

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

I am in love with this guitar. You sir are a Genius!

I love breaking out of the traditional molds and going "different". I only (for now) build classical's, and I'm inspired by your out of the box thinking for a cross-over too.

Can't wait to see it finished.
Steve

Really really cool guitar. wow

Lars

What if I may ask is the "hollow dragon" concept? Please excuse my ignorance.

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"Preoccupation with an effect gives it power and enhances the error"
from "Your Owner's Manual" by Burt Hotchkiss.

I have to agree, I saw this Guitar at the Blues Creek open house
It was like the sexiest girl at the bar, I couldn’t take me eyes off her
I finally got the nerve to go over and say hello, her long slender frame
her vivacious curves, I just had to put my hands on her…

Seriously, the design of this instrument is outstanding and the workmanship is second to none.

SA