I want to build a nylon string crossover.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

John and Ken Cierp, do you guys have any plans for a nylon crossover? I have no idea what the top bracing should be for this type. I figure I can pretty much make an OM body style, with a bolt on neck...and a fretboard width somewhere between a steel string and a classical width.
I don't really play classical, but I love the sound, and my fingers are too short for those wide fretboards.
Do you guys have any help for a poor boy like me???

Kevin

[darren]

count me in... have been thinking of an L-OO with extremely light x, single tone bar and cross grain patches instead of finger braces.

I'm pretty sure Ken has mentioned a crossover before, he'll know what direction to head in. (are there any wrong directions? - build it and retop the box if it doesn't sound right)

[johnnparchem]

I know nothing about a crossover but my uniformed 2 cents. Why not use a fan brace pattern instead of an x-brace. The tensions are not as bad. You would get more sound. You can reduce the neck angle; classical is flat to tilted 1 or 2 mm toward the top, so that you do not need a radius in the upper bout. Fret the guitar after you have fitted the neck and you can plane the relief you need into the fret board.

[tippie53]

I can't help out with this one , Maybe Ken will . I have plans on the 00 NY series .

[kencierp]

Here's the KMG OMNS -- a standard Torres fan brace set up will work fine 1.3 degree neck-set. It does have a truss rod. As far as I'm concerned these should have a cutaway and pick-up -- this one has a Fishman Presys system. The release of this kit is on the back burner at the moment. I am going to do the finishing soon -- using a new clear very fast drying pore filler that we (KMG) plan to sell. Still doing a bit more testing --- this is a solvent base product, so it has none of the water related problems of Target HS. I digress.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Yeah Ken, now I remember you showing that one in the past somewhere. So then you have not yet completed this guitar?
John, I will have to look up that design, the 00NY. I'm assuming it is a Martin?
What do you sell the plans for?
Thanks for your input guys.

Kevin

[tippie53]

I don't have plans but can make the tracing for you .

[Darryl Young]

Ok, I'll show my ignorance here (not uncommon for me!).......what is a 00NY?

[Darryl Young]

Kevin,

I'm no expert on classical guitars but I'll mention something for you to consider. A fan braced guitar is very strong the direction of the grain (in parallel to the fan braces) but isn't as strong side to side. This lowers the resistance of the bridge rocking side to side (the cross dipole mode) so this happens at a lower frequency. On X-bracing, these strong braces run at an angle so stiffen up the side-to-side rocking of the bridge so this happens at a higher frequency. The more you open up the X-brace angle where the bridge is located, the more cross grain stiffness you add.

So if you love the sound of a nylon string guitar, you might not want to change the frequency of the cross dipole too much. You could either use fan braces (like a classical) or if you decide to use an X-brace, maybe close the angle where the bridge resides to 90deg or maybe less. And think about using one finger brace that isn't very tall or wide. Just some things to consider.

[kencierp]

All the heavy lifting for designing a nylon string sound board has been done for us there are countless layouts that will work just fine -- an OM and the large classicals are about the same size. The relatively low tension and the non metallic materials used to make nylon strings account for the distinctive sound qualities. The light fan bracing coupled with the lower tension strings allows the sound-board to be responsive and resonant. I have done limited experiments with X braced nylon string guitars and generally found a lack of volume and resonace. Here's Taylors NS brace pattern -- mine is similar -- I don't see the need for a bridge plate.