Hi everyone...I'm a first time builder and I've used the Stewart McDonald fret calculator with a 22 fret 24.75" scale...same as my Les Paul. I've drawn the frets, as calculated, out on the CGB neck, but the positions don't match up with my Les Paul exactly. Is there something I'm missing?? Now I'm not sure what to do.
Thanks for the help,
Bill in Mobile
Replies
The original question was "why is my layout different than my Les Paul" not a question of how to measure and layout his finger board. Bill's measurement method wasnt at fault, just his assumption that his Les Paul was really 24 3/4" was misleading, and I attempted to explain why.
Crows method is fine, and exactly the math that was used long before calculators and computers. Just one thing, be careful to always measure from the same starting point (base) to prevent the potential stack up of errors likely to occur if you measure fret to fret as I have seen some people do.
As noted in my original response there are multiple scale lengths used by Gibson over the years, all "generically" called 24 3/4". It could actually be 24 5/8", 24 9/19" etc. depending on vintage. Also, there are some minor manufacturing tolerance variations guitar to guitar to consider when comparing finger boards.
The "compensated" length will vary string to string, and even from guitar to guitar depending on setup. Variations in string guage, action height etc will cause slight variations and therefore the compensation is "fine tuned" for each guitar. An average can be calculated for a starting point, but will always require tweaking to get it right. One string may be 24 3/4". Or the average might be. (I have personally never bothered or felt the need to check.)
But fret layout will still be based on the first octave length X2 which in this case will not be 24 3/4"
Measure from the edge of the nut to the center of the 12th fret and multiply by 2 for accurate duplication of the fret layout of an existing scale length.
Downloaded wfret...thanks JonBoye!!!!
wfret.zip You can even print out your results to tape on to your neck. I hope this helps.
you can use regular guitar strings at any shorter scale dude, you just gotta be mindful that they are going to reach a higher pitch than they were packaged for.. If you have a regular guitar at home you can hold your build up against it so the bridges pretty much line up and look how the nut distances compare. If your nut on your project lines up just about with the fourth fret on the guitar for example you can know that an E string will be happy around g#, right? Thing is, as the scale length decreases, so does the range of pitches you can tune a given string to. At 25" guitar scale for example a low E string might happily go down to D1 or C#1 before its flabby and toneless.. It might go up as far as perhaps G or G# before it breaks or is under too much tension, impossible to bend, adding too much torsion onto the neck etc etc.. this range is pretty decent, lets say something between a diminished fifth and an augmented fifth.. (6 frets and 8 frets) .. well as the scale gets shorter so will this range, so you gotta be more selective with your strings at a shorter scale if that makes sense.. This is why you can get guitar strings in several sizes, light, x light, heavy etc etc, but with something as short as a mando there might only be one size or at the most two,and sod all difference between em.
And this is all I think you mean too Jason, on a shoter neck the same string will comfortably tune to a higher pitch, its obvious and stands to reason, if someone puts up a pic of a shorty 14" scale cbg on here, how do you assume it sounds in your mind? You assume its tuned to a higher register of course..Maybe pitch was the wrong word. I was thinking a guitar scale length vs a ukelele scale length. One has a much higher tone(?) than the other.
Don Thompson said:
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