Baritone multi scale

[Geocoucou79]

-IMO it is better for a baritone to keep the tone bars feathered to the rim and not tuck into.

What’s the reason for this? And would you do the same for all braces or for tone bars only?

[Herman]

Just the braces of the lower bout. It makes the soundboard move better. For stability tucking in does not add something, but it makes all stiffer. So less sound.
For years I don't tuck in there and no guitar suffers from that for 20 years now.

[Geocoucou79]

Hi luthiers,

I just closed my box and I'm gonna have to figure my neck angle soon. I tried this online calculator and came up with a 4 degrees neck angle but that's with a 3/8 inches bridge + saddle thickness which I'm not sure about. I was planning to make a pinless bridge like some of you guys here do. What are the measurements you use for this, including the saddle height? And do you use a calculator like this one or you have your own recipe?

Cheers,
Dominic

[Geocoucou79]

Other question. I will start working on my bindings and purflings soon. Do you glue them together before bending them or not and if so, do they hold well under the heat of the bending iron?

On my last (and second) build, I glued them separately in their own channel in the same operation and it was a real pain in the butt to do so. I had to fix part of it afterward and it took forever to get not so satisfying results.

[John Parchem]

I am missing something as my neck angles are around 1.5°. Using your 4° I get around an inch and a quarter at the bridge. I do not use an elevated neck so I set the neck angle on the body before I glue on the top. I do that by using a straight edge on a fretboard extension area on a clamped top and look for 2.5-3mm gap between the top and the straight edge at the saddle location. After the top is glued on I measure the angle for the heel to top joint and set that into the heel. Usually around 1 to 1.5°. It depends on how square the heel block is.

[Geocoucou79]

I am missing something as my neck angles are around 1.5°. Using your 4° I get around an inch and a quarter at the bridge. I do not use an elevated neck so I set the neck angle on the body before I glue on the top. I do that by using a straight edge on a fretboard extension area on a clamped top and look for 2.5-3mm gap between the top and the straight edge at the saddle location. After the top is glued on I measure the angle for the heel to top joint and set that into the heel. Usually around 1 to 1.5°. It depends on how square the heel block is.

I put a large square on it and it’s not so square indeed. I was expecting the long part of the square to touch the middle of the belly but it’s actually touching the very end of it. Which means the bottom of the heel block is angled forward a tiny bit and that I have to over compensate for this with the neck.

[Geocoucou79]

I have made a bit of progress on that project. The box is now closed and bound. Few flaws with the bindings but I should be able to fix it.

IMG_4792.jpeg (517.22 KiB) Viewed 793 times

I made another blunder while trying to fit the neck angle. I removed too much material on one side and I’m seriously considering hanging this neck on the wall of shame and start over. The heel is quite thin now and the neck joint would be around 13th fret an half. Don’t ask how I did that… If one think I can save this please manifest yourself!

IMG_4797.jpeg (409.54 KiB) Viewed 793 times

IMG_4792.jpeg (517.22 KiB) Viewed 793 times