Question on Acoustic Bass plans and Bass/Baritone dual duty guitar shape?
Hi all
Due to how well my previous guitar came out, it looks like I may have a commission to build an acoustic bass. What i'm finding (or not finding) so far is that acoustic bass guitar plans are few and far between. I've found 1 good set of plans so far, (georgia luthier supply) but its a 12 fret neck joint design and I know the guy who may be commissioning the build plays ALL over his fretboard on his electric bass so a 12 fret design, even with the cutaway, may not be ideal. Have any of you built acoustic basses? and if so do any of you have the plans you'd be willing to share/sell me?
Second part - If I end up not finding a set of plans to work from and the guy is still interested in letting me build one but with a design straight out of my head, where do I start with bracing? I could possibly borrow from the 12 fret design plans, but i'd probably need to modify it to move the neck joint to the 14/15th fret as per 'usual' (going on the other designs you see around), there is a chance this may not be as big a deal as it could be because the plans are for a 32" scale, if I put a 34" scale neck on it and kept the bridge location the same, i think i'd easily get the 2-3 frets of shift required, but as i'm writing this it's just 'semi-educated' guesswork.
Thirdly - I've recently played a baritone and fell in love with its sound and voice, I had said to myself that if i wanted a baritone, i'd be unlikely to build it mostly because i'm also struggling to find plans anywhere for baritone guitars.
What i'm wondering is, if I have to make a new mould for a big guitar thats big enough to be a bass, i'm thinking if the shape is right (i'm thinking jumbo-ish), I may be able to use it for a baritone build too, but obviously the bracing on both soundboard and back would be different and perhaps the baritone would be slightly less deep, but my initial thoughts are that hopefully I could perhaps use the mould for the sides for both designs and then I wouldn't need yet another mould, does this sound sensible to anyone else??
Thanks in advance for your help
David
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