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I've now caught up with the last of my work started in New Zealand, at least until the lacquer cures for a few weeks. I've got 3 new instruments on the build sheet here in Nairobi, all of them very different. One is a baritone fan-fret wedge -- yes, I'm feeling brave, as I've never done a baritone, a fan fret, or a wedge, but this is purely a project for me that might add to my demo stock if it's not a total disaster!

I've decided to build roughly around the OLF-SJ plan, so I'm working out the details to add the fan-fret at about 27-3/4" on the treble and about 29" on the bass (I actually work in metric, but these are close). The challenge that anyone working on a fan-fret faces is how to organize the bracing and bridge patch under a relocated skewed bridge. The baritone scale lengths add the complication of shifting things further down the face of the lower bout.

Simply closing up the X brace won't do the trick in this case, and I'd rather not shift it back from the sound hole or move the sound hole itself.

So, how have others tackled this? I'm thinking that a double-X or lattice bracing might offer the solution. Not sure if the terminology is accepted, but I'm thinking of a lower X whose upper arms intersect the lower arms of the main X and continue to the rim.

I'd be very interested to hear of the experience of those who have built acoustic baritones, and or fan-frets.

Cheers from Kenya.

Tim

I did a fan fret baritone wedge a couple of years ago. It was based on the OLF MJ. I went with 27"-29". My perpendicular fret was around the 6th fret. All in all it turned out pretty good. I laid out the two scales on paper and experimented connecting them, lining them up differently and connecting again until it looked cool. If I do another, I'd want to have less slant at the nut, but that would make the bracing harder.

The bracing, I just laid out the saddle and worked backwards to a lopsided x. I've got pictures of the bracing, but they're trapped in the old laptop. I'll see if I can get them out later today. Here's a youtube with some pics, but no bracing. I've been meaning to call the owner and see if he could stick a light inside and take a pic too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qgn8SiqCwk

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Mike Lindstrom

Can you post a picture of the body shape with the bridge in place? I'll see what I can come up with.

Although in my opinion, the natural shape of fan fret guitars is asymmetrical. Here's my harp guitar pattern. Neck scale is 24.75" to 25.5" with 7th fret parallel, and harp strings just follow the slope of the bridge. 12th fret neck join, 20" from there to the tail, 16" lower bout width. But the bridge is also a fair bit wider than normal (8") so I can get away with a wider X angle than yours will need.

Interesting responses -- thanks Mike and Dennis!

I'm now realizing I've been off-track from the outset by thinking I should put the perpendicular fret at the body join (fret 14). Obviously closer to the nut would be a better place - 6, 7, 8? And once I do that, the bridge will be even more skewed. I'd rather not make the bridge that much wider than normal, just for the corners to catch the X-brace. I'd also like to avoid a hugely asymmetrical bracing by rotating the main X -- that's why the lattice bracing occurred to me as light, but structurally effective approach, while allowing the bridge to transmit energy well to the top.

I'm back to the drawing board, while I work through options with Fretfind, to work out exactly where my saddle need to end up.

Other guidance MOST welcome!

My 27" 25" jumbo multi scale bracing.

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

I was hoping you would pipe in, Fred. Is that a typo -- 27" to 25"? If not, you only needed to rotate one wing of the bridge and maybe lengthen a bit to catch the X brace in a "normal" position?

In my case, I'm looking at 29" to 27-3/4", so starting much further down from the soundhole, and using 0.016 - 0.070 strings.

Have been making some progress in rethinking my fingerboard with Fretfind, except I can't see where to get a board width at the mid-point of the 14th fret (i.e., my body join), or for that matter anywhere else other than the nut and the saddle. It will print a nice drawing, even with the proper string set back, but I can't find the dimensions. There are some columns I don't yet understand.