Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi:

I have been following an interesting thread on another forum (not a member due to infrequent posts) and wanted to see what folks here thought about a related question. For classical guitars would you reduce the size of the plantilla if planning on using a 630mm scale length? The other thread had to do with slightly smaller guitars and got into a discussion of hand size and the optimal scale for smaller hands.

There was another discussion of hand size and measuring it a while back and referenced an author named Alicia, last name forgotten. I have not been able to find in the archives here or on the other forum. Does anyone remember this? Thanks.

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GEO
perpetual beginner

George I'm in the process of building my second guitar with 24.9 scale. I find that with my small hands its much easier to play. In both cases the mods were minimal - shorter neck and I just moved up the bridge a bit. On the steel string the X bracing was such that moving the bridge closer to the sound hole had minimal impact. On the CG no mods required to fan bracing.

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A higher purpose for wood.
Rich Smith
Issaquah, WA

That prior thread about hand size probably reffered to Alicia Kopfstein-Penk, who wrote a book called 'The Healthy Guitar' about this subject. You can get the book from her:
c.kopfstein@verizon.net

Alan:

Thanks for the email address. I will give a try. By having her full name I was also able to find another email address for her (akp@american.edu).

Ricardo:

There does not seem to be any structural reason to move up the bridge and make the necessary bracing adjustments to accomodate a shorter scale. There might be an aesthetic one. We will see when I give it a try. Thanks.

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GEO
perpetual beginner