Scale Length for a 17” box Looking for guidance

So I started working on a build and was all gunho and built a nice neck of walnut and oak ,got as far as gluing my neck piece to the heel piece for a neck through style. 25 1/2 in scale. So while sort of eyeballing everything up, and trying to figure where the bridge would be,I realized not only would my heel disappear into the box with this neck but the neck would be short of 12 frets even being playable.Arrgghhh I’m wide open for suggestions here. I love this box , it’s an old Factory Throwouts box!!

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  • Neck is built , fretboard unfretted in pieces, I have it laid out now looks the bridge would have to be nearly half way up the length which is a little much I prefer about 1/4 the way up, going to use a tailpiece that that bends over the end of box With a floating bridge. I’m not sure how to upload photos.
  • I think we might need to more clearly know where you are at in the project.

    Glued up? fretted? In pieces?

    Large boxes can be cool, but create their own challenges too. One tactic is to locate the bridge pretty far up the box, but even then you will likely incur some limited access to the higher frets.

    This kind of thing is why I ALWAYS suggest at least a sketch, preferably a reasonably accurate scale drawing mock up before proceeding to build. It can save you from many potential headaches.

  • Could you upload a picture of the neck laid out with the box and bridge? It's gotta be doable, my Gibson has 24.75 inch scale and the bridge is 12 inches from the 14th fret. If you did the same your bridge would be about 2/3rds of the way through the box which should be OK. However, if you anchor the strings at the end of the box the break angle over the bridge might be to shallow but that is easy enough to fix with a string retaining bar.

    Gary
    • I have pics but How to upload?
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