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I would like to hear how makers of classical and flamenco guitars do initial set up. There have recently been a couple of threads on set up for acoustic guitars on the forum. I have also seen a couple of nice videos on Youtube, once again, on acoustic guitars - nothing on classical or flamencos. Please chime in with what works for you.

Thanks,
Max

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Max Bishop
Brighton, Michigan

The process is really the same for me on any guitar. I always start with the saddle height then get the nut right then go back to the saddle if necessary. The customer is always right but personally I like to set the action up high on classical guitars. A full 5/32nd inch over the low-E down to 4/32nd on the High-E. I've only ever built one flamenco and I set that up with much lower action.

Be careful working the nut slots. Nylon strings are cut easily on fresh slot edges. Nice smooth surfaces on nut and saddle are important.

I plane the fretboard completely flat, then introduce about .1mm (treble side) to .15mm (bass side) of relief around the 7th fret. I put a 1mm feeler gauge at the nut location, and at the bridge location a block of wood that goes from 11mm (bass side) to 10mm (treble side) over the string spacing (57mm in my case). Straight edge should be 4mm (treble side) to 4.5mm (bass side) above the fretboard. I plane the action into the fretboard. I also radius my fretboards very lightly (about 0.1mm gap between edge of fretboard and straight edge across the fretboard).
For cutting the nut slots, I put a straight edge on the 12th fret, and in the nut slot. Then I check the space between straight edge and 1st fret with feeler gauges.
I want (low E to high E): 0.4, 0.35, 0.3, 0.35, 0.3 and 0.25mm between first fret and straight edge.
Then I put the straight edge on the 1st fret and the (bridge) saddle, and I want the action to be 3.5 to 4mm on the bass side, and 2.5 to 3mm on the treble side (classical). Flamenco's quite a bit lower (player preference).

hope this helps. sorry for the metric system, but that's what I use.

No no no. The whole world uses the metric system I should be the one apologizing

Thanks, everybody. I will be trying your suggestions soon on a guitar I am making.

_________________
Max Bishop
Brighton, Michigan