Small Dreadnaught?

[kencierp]

There's freeware out there that will allow you to print to scale or resize. PM if any member wants the JPEG

[Darryl Young]

Cool! That is a smaller body than I wanted to build. I was thinking of a 000 sized dread. Cool that you found the dimensions!

[kencierp]

Actually pretty easy to find the dimensions since it is my drawing!

[David L]

If you shorten the length (neck to heel) of the guitar (and I'm going to make up a number) by let's say 2 inches, 1 inch shorter from the neck and 1 inch shorter from the heel, wouldn't the X-brace, bridge plate, bridge, sound hole, etc.. need to be shifted aft by the same amount (1 inch), in order for the scale length (and everything associated with it) to conform to the new dimensions of the body?

David L

[kencierp]

Shifting of componets to accomodate a different scale length is in relationship to the 12th fret (1/2 the scale length) not the neck heel. Note however, that the guitar police will not come to get you if you don't have the "X" joint in a particular place. Some Pre-war models happen to have it about 1" from the sound hole. Modern guitars are braced much farther back, nearer to the bridge plate, basically in a more rigid structural position. But there is a trend to build some models with the neck fastened at the 12th fret using a body designed for a 14th fret body -- the X joint is a mile away from the bridge plate! Seems like no rules.
Rick (RD) have you constructed any with this bridge placement variation?

[David L]

OK now I'm confused (something not too difficult to acclomplish), I'm under the impression that there are some hard and fast rules about what the distance between the nut and the saddle should be, otherwise why would bridge location be different (and critical) between a Martin 25.34 scale and a Martin 25.4 scale? Please pardon my ignorance on this subject matter, I want to learn!

David L

[David L]

OK, I just re-read your post Ken, scale length is in relationship to a fixed point on the FB (12th fret) and not the heel of the neck or the forward most part of the guitar body, however... I need to think about it some more.

David L

[David L]

OK, let's try this, If I have a template for a guitar top (style doesn't matter) that has all the bells and whistles, brace sizes, brace locations, Bridge and bridge plate locations and I take a pen and paper and re-draw the outline of the template 1 inch inside of the given dimension, haven't I moved the 12th fret 1 inch aft in relation to the existing location of the X-brace, bridge plate, bridge, sound hole, etc of the template, there-by requiring a 1 inch shift aft to accomodate or am I missing something here?

David L

[kencierp]

Sorry -- you lost me completely -- the 12th fret does not move anywhere, its the half way point base-line.

[Ben-Had]

OK, let's try this, If I have a template for a guitar top (style doesn't matter) that has all the bells and whistles, brace sizes, brace locations, Bridge and bridge plate locations and I take a pen and paper and re-draw the outline of the template 1 inch inside of the given dimension, haven't I moved the 12th fret 1 inch aft in relation to the existing location of the X-brace, bridge plate, bridge, sound hole, etc of the template, there-by requiring a 1 inch shift aft to accomodate or am I missing something here?

David L

I would say yes. But what are you trying to achieve? If you want a small dreadnought why not just make a small dreadnought box. I mean, a 000 or OM is slightly smaller than a dread so why not start there (slightly smaller if that's why you want) and just alter the shape to match a dread, decrease the side depth slightly and keep the same scale length. Then you have good string tension for sound, etc. the shape you want and you're good to go. Of course you'd have to build your own molds to build and molds to bend the sides. And I am probably missing something here too. I would be concerned about neck angle geometry.