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So I have a classical 650 mm neck that I'm trying to figure out if I can convert to a 640 mm or ?. Does anybody ever do a zero fret on a classical? How far in front of the nut is a zero fret usually located? I don't really care about the scale length as much as that I have this nice 650 mm neck I made a while back that I would like to use for an FE17. Has anyone ever done an FE17 with a 650 mm neck, or anyone ever shortened the scale length of a neck? All suggestions appreciated! Thanks, Wendy

We're talking about 5mm on the neck blank. Is there no way to get that space out of the heel?

I have seen a 640 by a known maker, whose name I can't remember right now. Carlos Perez plays one of his guitars. He uses a 650 neck and adapts the nut so the back of the nut blends into the head plate. Sort of the opposite of what Trevor does with his compensated nut where the front part blends into the fret board, except that the part that blends into the headplate slants with the headstock. Is your neck fully made? Is the slot already cut? Is this a bolt on neck or a Spanish foot type? You really only have to fudge a little bit at each end. Slip the 12th fret just off the body join toward the nut by a mm or so and make your nut a bit thicker. Plane the headstock a mm or so and that moves the nut toward the body.

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Waddy

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Change the headstock angle by planing it near the nut (taking off a thin wedge), keeping the head stock flat. Then plane or Safe-T-Plane the back of the headstock to make it parallel again. You'll loose about 1mm of headstock thickness (max) which you can probably get away with, but if you can't, use a thicker headstock facing veneer sandwich or a thicker back strap. Any headstock angle greater than ~7 degrees is fine (comes out to a break angle of about 10 degrees with slot head tuners).

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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

All good suggestions and food for thought, which I will consider when I get back out in the shop today. The neck is completed with Spanish foot, slots cut, heel completely carved, headplate and veneers glued and shaped. Pretty much done except for shaping the neckshaft. It's a neck I made years ago for a Rodriguez, which I never built. I am planning on giving up guitar building (long story) and just want to build these last 2 to use the materials I have left. It would be nice to use the neck, but the top I have available is only large enough for an FE17. I don't think there is room to take 5 mm off the heel and the slots are already cut anyway. It would be awful hard to widen the slots with the heel already carved and the foot shaped. The nut, as per the Rodriguez plan, is already thicker than what I would normally use. The headplate is ebony. I wonder if I could insert a piece of ebony, 3mm thick, where the nut would go, make the top of it flush with the headplate. That would move the nut forward 3mm. It would look odd from the side, but from the front it would look pretty normal. Then I could move the 12th fret 2mm off the body joint.

Another option is to build an FE17 with 650 scale length. All I would have to do is add a few mm at the heel end of the body and scoot the bridge back a few mm.

I just looked in the Torres book and his FE17 was 645 scale length so the difference is very minimal. Thanks for all the ideas and help!
Wendy