Claire,
the thing i do to get the "right angle" is:
1.i build the guitar so that the nut side of the neck is about 2mm higher then that of the plane of the top.
2.i plane a slope into my fingerboard so that its about
1.5mm thinner as it meets the soundhole.
of course numbers vary, but thats what ive been doing lately at the reccomendation of master luthier Boaz Elkayam, and R.E Brune's 1951 barbero plan supports this attitude too.
the old fashioned way of checking if the string to top distance is suitable is to see if a cigarette fits in there, if the fit is thight than its all good.
however, my impression is, that the more modern flamenco guitarists prefer a slightly higher action which keeps the buzzing down and supposedly contributes to a slightly warmer(more sustain?) sound.
so what i shoot for is such an angle that when i place a straight edge on top of my fretted FB i will end up with about a 5mm gap at the bridge position, or in other words, have the starightedge fall touch the bridge 2mm lower than its highest point.
i make my bridges 7mm tall.
i end up with tops at around 2mm thick.
a thing to consider is that the taller the bridge is the greater the torque is, therefore a taller bridge calls for a stronger(thicker?) soundboard.
and a low flamenco bridge calls for a less rigid(thinner?) top.
R.E Brune has a few very informative articles, i think they all appear in recent "GAL convention" issues of, well,the GAL magazine.
i have the magazines at university, once i m there ill check and let you know the exact issue numbers.
Udi.
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