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So Christian has asked me to build him a guitalele. I am planning to start from StewMac's tenor ukulele kit and modify it for six strings. I believe the modification to the kit that will be needed, is a new neck and a new bridge, new nut and saddle. I am leaving the bridge + saddle alone for now, when it is needed I will cut a bridge from rosewood following Mike Moss's ukulele bridge making demo.
Today I started the project, which mainly means I took the kit out, examined the parts, looked at the instructions, watched the videos at StewMac's site, and started planning out the neck.
Guitalele neck: neck width
The neck and fingerboard included with the kit are strongly tapered, from 45mm at the 14th fret (where the neck meets the body) to 35mm at the nut (a length of 239mm, taper of 10mm). (These are the fingerboard widths; the neck is slightly wider and is meant to be shaped down to flush with the fingerboard.) I'm flying a bit by the seat of my pants reckoning the dimensions for my neck, starting from what I can find on the internet. The fingerboard I have is 49.5mm wide, so that is how wide the body end of it will be. (The kit fingerboard is 46.5mm at the body end.)
The Yamaha guitalele has a nut width of 48mm, and a string spacing (at bridge) of 10.2mm, meaning the width from top to bottom string at the saddle is 51mm. I'm trying to figure out the string width at the nut -- the 35mm nut included with the kit has a string width of 28mm, so let's say the Yamaha string width at the nut is 41mm. So there is a taper of 10mm over a scale length of 17" (431.8mm). The string width at 12th fret is 46mm, neck width is 53mm.
I can't have a neck that wide; so I will need to space the strings slightly tighter, with less spread between the nut and the bridge. I figure my neck can be 48mm wide at the 12th fret, so string width there is 41mm. If I want a 10mm taper from nut to saddle, that would make the nut string width 36mm, neck width at nut 43mm; string width at saddle 46mm. So string spacing at nut is 7.2mm (a little less than 5/16") and at bridge is 9.2mm. If my calculations are right the string spacing at the nut of the Yamaha guitalele is 8.2mm (a little bit over 5/16"). I think these measurements will work but will check in with Christian to make sure. If I want to widen the fingerboard I reckon I could do that, I have some scrap rosewood I could use but it would be difficult to guarantee that it would look pretty. I could also try reducing the taper, but it is difficult to know what the effect would be on the playability.
Neck length
Neck length is taken care of. The fingerboard is made for a 17" scale; head to 14th fret is 240mm. (The kit fingerboard is 16 7/8" scale.) I will leave enough room for a peghead about half again as long as the kit's peghead.
posted morning of November 13th, 2023: Respond
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