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I'm drawing out the plans for my baritone. What's the best way to lengthen the scale for a baritone?

1. Increase Neck length by 1"' & move the bridge position 1" toward the tail
2. Increase Neck length only
3. Move bridge only

#1 sounds best to me. Any reason not to go that way?

On my 28" scale I chose the scale length then laid out from the 14th fret at the body and worked back from the 12th to find the bridge location. Once that is established locate the X and sound hole locations. The bridge location from the 12th moves less than the nut to 14th distance.

Fred

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

The short answer is that unless you're going over 29" you can get away with a 14 fret neck joint. I use a 15 fret joint on my 30" baritones and the bridge ends up within about 1/8" of the 28.59.

Other than that, layout your neck and bridge position and put the x so the wings cross it and design the bracing around that. Your choice is how to arrive at the X, i.e., tighten the splay and/or move the X down to accomplish this.

Why assume X bracing?

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Trevor Gore, Luthier. Australian hand made acoustic guitars, classical guitars; custom guitar design and build; guitar design instruction.

http://www.goreguitars.com.au

any blatant flaws visible before I continue?

Choose the string length first.
Then layout were the neck will be joined.
Finally the bridge position and the bracing.
everything else don't really matter much.

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Just make sure your not going to be drilling holes in X braces.

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Jason Moe
LaCrosse WI 54601

I cant tell from your drawing, but you are using a true layout of the chosen scale length to find your fret positions, and thus the bridge position correct ??? (such as fretfind or similar). You cant simply lengthen the neck by an inch, and then move the bridge an inch and have everything lay out and then play properly -- if you did do this, what would the scale length be ??? (OK .. there is an answer to this, its that the scale length is now 2 inches longer than whatever one you started with - but it probably wont be a 14 fret neck joint) - But is that the scale length you wanted ???

I explain things like this to my students all the time .. the scale length tells you everything .. you cant just move one thing (like the bridge) and say its now a longer scale length because the string is longer .... the math doesnt work that way ...oooooh, he said the scary word ... MATH !!!!

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

What Tony said. Choose the scale, layout the fingerboard on the body, and layout your bridge. I can't tell how you arrived at your drawing, but your bari will fail if you follow your current layout. The bridge wings must CROSS the arms of the X, not just abut them. If it were me, I'd want the wing to cross such that the back end of the wing was at least over the X.

Waldron has bracing templates for bari's. (both Taylor and Martin style)
http://www.waldronmusic.com/product_mod ... pe=&cid=46

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Guitar Building = Continuous Improvement Process

Yes this is drawn to scale with a 27.5" scale and everything in place according to it being a 14th fret to body buyild. I want to make sure that the general layout looked correct. I wasn't sure abou the upper tansverse bace with the cutaway, if the soundhole looks ok in that position, etc. Thanks!

I would get the bridge wings farther across the X brace, Also is the bridge plate what I see under the bridge outline, if so it is rather small.

You might want to read this from David Berkowitz posted in guitarmakers magazine http://www.berkowitzguitars.com/pdf/guitarmaker-33.pdf

Fred

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

Thanks Fred, I was wondering about the position of the bridge and the x-brace. I just didn't like how far toward the tail it was when layed out to be more under the bridge. I'll re-draw it and see how it looks. The bridge plate is not visible, that's just the shape of the bridge. The plate will start at the center of the X-brace and extend just beyond the bridge. Basically it will look like a piece of pie.