Bracing Design & Other Changes

So I have a fingerboard layout and next on the list is sorting out the bracing design. The original Gibson L-O was "H" braced and that will not do for a MandoCello. So I'll design a more or less standard "X" brace for this.The trickiest part of this is positioning the X and getting the bridge path in the right spot.

I decided to go with and X slightly shifted away from the sound hole, which will give a slightly stiffer lower bout. i was also thinking about using 3 tone bars but this looked like over kill so I went with the more standard 2.

One of the big changes that came out of this exercise was what I had originally envisioned to be a 12 fret to the body instrument ended up a 14 fret to the body instrument. In the 12 fret configuration the bridge just did not end up in the right spot, this was due to using a longer scale than the original instrument and the fanned-fret configuration.. So a 14 fret instrument it is.. Now I guess I really do have to carbon fibre reinforce the neck as well as the truss rod.