Acoustic Guitar Construction

I went back to my Trevor Gore Design book. The 11 mm height is more about the traditional sound. Given that this is a crossover maybe going away from tradition is OK

A higher height off the fret board will give you a bigger initial transient sound Trevor says pop. So maybe if you keep the string height close to the same as your SS you will end up with a sound you like.

So having thought about it, if you make it like a steel string taper the fret board a bit to deal with the increased action and you might have a neat sounding guitar.

I constructed my cross over with the standard 1.3 degree tilt -- I actually cut the saddle slot as deep as possible to accommodate a slightly taller saddle -- the deeper slot helps to keep it from tilting forward, plus its .125" wide. Now it has always been my understanding that increasing the string break angle actually increases the energy transfer to the sound board, which I thought would be a good thing.

ken cierp wrote:I constructed my cross over with the standard 1.3 degree tilt -- I actually cut the saddle slot as deep as possible to accommodate a slightly taller saddle -- the deeper slot helps to keep it from tilting forward, plus its .125" wide. Now it has always been my understanding that increasing the string break angle actually increases the energy transfer to the sound board, which I though would be a good thing.

I was not concerned with the break angle, rather the higher saddle is driving the sound board harder as the saddle is a lever. So a higher saddle will sound different than a lower saddle. Different can be good or bad depending what one is looking for. My original post were based on my knowledge of making a traditional sounding classical guitar. Upon further reflection and a bit of reading I realize that a cross over is a different guitar so tradition be damned.

Well I appreciate the technical information regarding the action. I suppose what I am expecting is a guitar that sounds like a classical, but plays like a steel string.
Can I expect some reasonable facsimile of this if I brace the top like a classical, and come close to a neck set like a classical, but radius the fretboard and keep it 14 frets at the body. I'm thinking about 1.8" at the nut too. I have Bogdanavich's book here so I'm going to take it down and spend some time with it as he talks about the neck/body alignment, etc. and see if I can wrap my mind around it.
Ken, did you ever complete that crossover? I know you showed us a body and with neck attached, but I don't recall seeing it completed. If you did, can you post a sound bite?

Kevin

Still needs finish -- its for myself, so that stuff goes to the bottom of the list. I just recently decide to put the JJB four element pick up in it -- I hope to work on it more after tax season agh!

I think it will sound so much more like a classical than a steel string that few could hear the difference. I am going to radius the fret board of my next classical to about 20". I think 16" would be great on the crossover.

Ken, I'm going to put the JJB classical in mine also. I have really been happy with the 3 piezo deal in the steel strings. I do want the sound hole volume control too.