Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi again.
My plan is for a 1/7/8th neck 16 radius fretboard 24.9 scale so it is like my other guitars. (Slightly wider neck)

1. My typical top is radiused to 25' Would you still radius the nylon top or leave it flat.
2. I typically compensate my bridge location by setting the center of the saddle about 0.125" back. (Plus an angled saddle slot)
Would you also compensate the bridge location for a nylon guitar?

Thanks

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

On my last 2 guitars I used a slightly slanted bridge slot; setback was 1mm for the treble increasing to 2.5mm for the bass. You will need to set back the G string a lot on the saddle, and maybe the bass E some. This would be a fairly basic setup. At this moment i do not sweat intonation more than this. It changes with each string type, it changes with each players style of playing. Also a good player is able to compensate the tuning for each different piece played, making all sort of small compromises.

The top radius depends on what type of construction you plan to use. My tops are towards the thin end (of the traditional spectrum) at about roughly 2mm and I use a 15 radius. If you wanna try a thick top towards 3mm, very lightly braced, a la Hauser, you need to use a much gentler dome. The ratio between neck set amount and doming is crucial in achieving the correct setup geometry, so you will need to plan everything carefully in advance.

The neck width sounds kind of crowded to me. The regular width is 52mm. A narrow neck is 50, 49 when pushed. Your 47 is not great, and I guess it will make playing classical stuff difficult and dirty. It should be ok for chords and single note runs though.

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Build log

When you think about string spacing, know that you are not going to get the action on a classical/crossover that you get on a steel string. Minimum bass side action at 12 will be in the 3.5mm range and minimum on the treble side will be around 2.5mm. The wider spacing is what makes getting clean notes easier. Like Alex says, if too close, the playing will always be dirty. Even at 52mm, I have trouble getting clean notes with my big hands, and lousy playing ability.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

There is so much great info on this forum !
Alexandru & Waddy have given you great advise.

Definately go with an arched top .
Over years of service they show less distortion then flat tops if all demensions are the same -thickness,stiffness-etc.

Iset my saddle back 2mm for the High-E then 2.5mm for the B;then
3mm for the G ;then back to 1-2mm for the d; 2.5mm for tha A 3mm for the low E .
I use a 3mm wide saddle .

Neck width & radius ?
If your making this guitar for yourself then do what you like.
But if it's for sale -then nut-50mm -12th-60mm is the smallest width you want to use .
Nylon strings can be pulled & pushed off the edge of a thin neck very easily.
Also set the bridge ;so the high E is not close to the fret ends -cut the nut the same way .


Mike

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Mike Collins

Thanks for all of the advice

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

I bow to the experienced luthiers but have been experimenting with very narrow neck nylon sting guitars. The range of nylon string guitars I have tested go from 53mm at the nut down to 42mm at the nut (this last on a vintage parlor I bought to practice repairs). My hands are medium size and fingers narrow enough that I could play at all the widths.

I am on the third prototype of a nylon string crossover. The first two had a nut width at 45mm (1 3/4" for you steel string guys) These two guitars were taken to four different long-weekend guitar workshops and were played by more that 200 steel string players including the flat pickers and the thumb and finger pick users. They had no trouble with the string spacing and neck width. They also had no trouble scratching the $%&* out of the tops - but I expected that. The current build has a nut width of 43mm because the feedback from many of the players was that the neck felt too thick. Actual neck thickness was 19mm to 20mm at the first fret and fairly similar to the dozen or so steel string guitars I measured. So this third test - with the nut at 43mm and the neck thickness of 19mm at the first fret and 22mm at the ninth and a scale length is 24.625" - will hopefully appeal to people with small to medium hands and who do not have lots of hand strength. This guitar will spend 3 weeks at the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop in July where it will get a good workout and reactions noted.

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GEO
perpetual beginner