Removable neck acoustic instrument ?

[rob bowen]

Mark, I visited your site .... you have some beautiful instruments there. My hat is off to you. Last night I glued on the fingerboard ... this morning I made a sanding jig for the frets. Later today I spent some time installing the nut, and it is maybe one of the trickiest things so far in this project. Mine is not pretty, but I think it will do the job. Tonight I transferred fret positions from another guitar using dividers. It is a 25.5" scale.

[rob bowen]

more pics

[Mark Swanson]

Thanks, Rob.

[Hans Bezemer]

This is a cool project Rob, I'll be paying close attention.

[Peter Wilcox]

Here are a couple of fret calculators that give you the flexibility of any scale length. With one you can print out a template that may be easier to use than transferring from an existing guitar. The other site also has a nut calculator that you may find useful to calculate the string spacing on the nut.

http://www.ekips.org/tools/guitar/fretfind2d/

http://www.manchesterguitartech.co.uk/f ... lculators/

[rob bowen]

Mark you are very welcome. Hans thanks so much! Peter thanks so much for the great info! What a great tool the fret calculator is.

[Mike Walashek]

Hey Rob. It looks like you are ready to do the nut spacing and shaping. Let me know if you need any help. Mike.

[rob bowen]

For sure Mike !

[rob bowen]

I had so much fun tonight. Very time consuming .... but hopefully worth it. I thought I would be glueing the frets on first and then cutting the fillets to fit in between, but I came up with a different process. I cut the first fillet, then placed a fret, then a second fillet and fret .... when I was pleased with the positioning, I glued all of it. Basically, that is it, 2 - 3 pieces at a time. Held down with finger pressure. I am really loving this .... I can't stop touching it. I also shaped the area in front of the nut on my spindle sander.

[Peter Wilcox]

That neck has gotten awfully fat - looks like a square neck resonator.

[rob bowen]

hahahha...yes, you are right Peter. I will be bringing it down.

[rob bowen]

21 Balsamo frets glued in.

[rob bowen]

Last night I made what I am calling thickness calipers. I looked on Google for examples and this is the best I could come up with. I'm no engineer, but these work pretty accurate for my purposes. I've started carving down the top to reduce thickness and these are going to be handy.

[Peter Wilcox]

Nice job on the calipers - they should at least get you in the 1/4 mm ball park, which should be adequate for an instrument like this.

I like the different colored woods as fret position markers.

[rob bowen]

Thanks very much Peter ! Much appreciated !

[rob bowen]

Busily carving the top down now. Pictures coming.

[rob bowen]

I decided to color the area to be carved to make it easy to see the amount taken away. I started by creating troughs.... checking the thickness. I've brought it to about 3 - 4 millimeters. It started at 6 millimeters. I drafted in the area where the bridge will sit and decided not to thin that area. Is that a mistake? Can someone clarify?

[Peter Wilcox]

I'm afraid I can't be of any help to you regarding top thickness. Your guitar seems to have more in common with an archtop type, what with the cylindrical arch to the top and floating bridge/tailpiece. I know less than nothing about them. Also, your wood being poplar, which I believe is relatively soft, would figure in.

Also, are you going to have a port (sound hole or f hole) of some kind?

As a guess, I'd think that 3mm would be a good starting point around the edge, maybe tapering it up to 5-6mm at the bridge if that's possible. Also, if there's not much response here, you could post in the archtop forum, asking for advice on top thickness for an experimental guitar, and posting a link to this thread.

[Bryan Bear]

Yep, you are way out of my experience zone now. I don't know anything about instruments with that much arch, floating bridges, nylon strings or hardwood tops. I'macraid I won't be much help from here on out. Still a spectator though.

[rob bowen]

Peter, I have done as you mention. Thanks very much for the input. I've left an area approximately the size of a "moustache" bridge at about 6 millimeters, and the rest of the soundboard is approximately 3.5 - 4 millimeters. I will be installing a pickup in this guitar in the event it sings like bullfrog. Thanks for the input Bryan, your words are much appreciated. Do you fellas know .... does the back need to be thin as well? I'm assuming it does, but thought it was worth asking. ( Since doing the top is SO much work ).