Official Luthiers Forum!

I have made 2 OMs and I'm now planning to make a OOO for my wife. I thought that the shorter scale (24.9") than an OM (25.4") combined with a narrower neck would make it easier for her to play.

I noticed that LMI has 2 different templates for OM and OOO. I thought that I could use the OM template that I have and that there would be no difference in the body or top. It now occurrs to me that maybe the fingerboard for the shorter scale might result in a shorter fingerboard and that I may need to move the sound hole forward to accommodate the shorter fingerboard. It that right? Do I need to the sound hole forward for a OOO and if so, by how much?
Steve

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Sound hole,Bridge, bridge plate, and bracing change with the scale length. Some build OM bodys and OOO bodys the same shape and adjust bracing and such as needed and some use a forward shifted waist shape with a longer tangent between the waist and lower bout shaped body on OOO's. If you you wish to use am OM body ther is no problem but you will need to adjust the brace locations. SO lay it out on paper first.

Are we talking 12-fret, 14-fret?

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now known around here as Pat Foster
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Steve never said but typiclly a 24.9 scale will be a 12 fret

I am refering to a 14-fret OOO... I'm planning to use the OM mold that I currently
have. I just want to build with the shorter 24.9 scale. Ken Cierpilowski sent
me an e-mail saying that I need to move the sound hole and the X-brace 1/4 inch
toward the fingerboard. Do you guys concur?

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

I guess I could simply measure the difference between the long scale and short scale fingerboards and subtract the difference in measurement to determine how far toward the fingerboard that I should shift the sound hole and and bracing...?

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

.20?
what am I missing here? When I subtract 24.9 from 25.4,
I come up with .5

Tom

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http://www.moriciguitar.com

The distance from the nut to 12th or 14th fret is going to consume about half of that .5 inch.

Right. The 14th fret stays at the body join, so half the difference is taken up above the 14th fret, the other half below. So, the nut moves down on the upper end (well, the frets too) and the bridge, soundhole, top bracing maybe and the end of the fb move up on the lower end.

A good learning exercise would be to sit down with a big sheet of paper, a pencil and a straightedge and lay it all out yourself, just to see how it all works. Use the body join and the 14th fret as your starting point. Everything starts there. The "hard" locations for a particular scale are the 14th fret (or 12th if you're building a 12-fretter), nut and bridge saddle. The soundhole, fb end and bracing "float". They depend on what you want. If you go with "standard" for the fb end and soundhole location, they'll look standard. With the bracing, be sure you catch the lower corners of the bridge wings with the lower x-braces, or at least get close. You can play with the x-brace angle and brace shifting. But if you want a durable, conventional looking and sounding guitar, stay close to the norms.

UMGF has a thread with photos of bracing taken looking at the top, with the body lit from inside. It's interesting to see how much variation there is.

http://p072.ezboard.com/ftheunofficialm ... 3414.topic

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now known around here as Pat Foster
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Ah!
Now I see what I was missing, I was thinking nut to saddle instead
of 14th/body joint to saddle.

Thanks!
Tom

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http://www.moriciguitar.com

From a practicality standpoint, I think that if the template of the top is drawn out and the short scale fingerboard is placed such that the 14th fret (for a 14 fretter of course…) is located where the neck would join the body, the position of the rosette and the sound hole can be easily determined... Right?

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

The only difference ,besides the scale, is the bridgeplate placement...