15th Fret?

[Solina Dave]

Just a couple of questions. I play the guitar, but I'm not all that familiar with the varying design differences of guitars. I was watching this Rolly Brown video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22hbPQagU_Q and noticed that the fretboard, instead of being attached at the 12th or 14th frets, is attached at the 15th fret. What is the reasoning behind this construction? Is it simply to afford one the extra fret access at the high end, or is there something else going on?

Just curious.............Dave

[ripdotcom]

could be a baritone or could be short or long scale, nothing special other than the neck joining at the 15th fret. I like the fact that it does so as typically cutaways only give that kind of reach.

[Solina Dave]

Originally Posted by ripdotcom

could be a baritone or could be short or long scale, nothing special other than the neck joining at the 15th fret. I like the fact that it does so as typically cutaways only give that kind of reach.

Baritone. Didn't know that. Thanks Rip

[Earl49]

Sounds a bit too high pitched to be a baritone guitar, to me. More like standard E-e tuning. But it is unusual to have a 15th fret neck join. 14th fret is "standard" and 12th fret is also fairly common. Perhaps this is a custom built guitar.

[Athens]

There's a small builder near here, Deadwood Guitars, who has a standard 16 fret design.

It's unusual, but he uses a different bracing pattern that supposedly accommodates the longer neck and resulting bridge placement.

[dkstott]

Rolly owns several custom one of a kind Prouxl ( spelling?) Guitars. That's one of them. The maker and Rolly have an agreement that he'll try new things and send the guitar to Rolly for awhile.

Rolly also has one with a zero fret installed on it.

[robj144]

Agree that is not a baritone.

[fuman]

The Tacoma Chief joined at the 15th fret, but that one has a cutaway, too.

[rick-slo]

Looks like at the 16th fret.

[Eric Madis]

Some have sought either 15-fret neck guitars or guitars with recessed shoulders (treble side upper bout) to avoid using cutaways. Although many claim that the upper bout of a flat-top acoustic does not move enough for a cutaway to make a sound difference, it almost always does. Only a few guitar designs have kept the same amount of volume and bass response with a cutaway. Also, many prefer the look of a non-cutaway guitar over a cutaway. However, a guitarist may still need access to a fret or two above the 14th fret. That's why even a 15-fret neck would make a difference. If you're a performing musician and a composer of acoustic instrumentals, then consider all of your tunes and ask yourself exactly how often you actually play above the 14th fret. It may actually amount to less than 1%, but that 1% can be significant, if the compositions require it. I have revoiced and edited some of my compositions to return to a 14-fret non-cutaway guitar. It can work, but the tunes are never quite the same. Most manufacturers make cutaways way too deep, resulting in a loss of more than 10% of the guitar body.

[Howard Emerson]

Originally Posted by Solina Dave

Just a couple of questions. I play the guitar, but I'm not all that familiar with the varying design differences of guitars. I was watching this Rolly Brown video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22hbPQagU_Q and noticed that the fretboard, instead of being attached at the 12th or 14th frets, is attached at the 15th fret. What is the reasoning behind this construction? Is it simply to afford one the extra fret access at the high end, or is there something else going on?

Just curious.............Dave

How about an explanation from the horses mouth?



HE

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Eric Madis

Some have sought either 15-fret neck guitars or guitars with recessed shoulders (treble side upper bout) to avoid using cutaways. Although many claim that the upper bout of a flat-top acoustic does not move enough for a cutaway to make a sound difference, it almost always does. Only a few guitar designs have kept the same amount of volume and bass response with a cutaway. Also, many prefer the look of a non-cutaway guitar over a cutaway. However, a guitarist may still need access to a fret or two above the 14th fret. That's why even a 15-fret neck would make a difference. If you're a performing musician and a composer of acoustic instrumentals, then consider all of your tunes and ask yourself exactly how often you actually play above the 14th fret. It may actually amount to less than 1%, but that 1% can be significant, if the compositions require it. I have revoiced and edited some of my compositions to return to a 14-fret non-cutaway guitar. It can work, but the tunes are never quite the same. Most manufacturers make cutaways way too deep, resulting in a loss of more than 10% of the guitar body.

Hi Eric…
First of all, Hello and welcome to the forum! Note the video in the thread below your post - this is a custom guitar built for the purpose you outline.

I play both cutaway and non-cutaway acoustic guitars as high as the 17th fret (primarily on strings 1-3) regularly, and don't have issues which cannot be compensated for.

The video linked above highlights this particular interesting instrument.

Also, you posted on what is sometimes referred to as a 'zombie' thread (no posts till yours since 2018). I'm glad you jumped in with this post.