Hi All,
I'm constructing my first dulcitar. The scale is going to be 24 inches. I'm using this calculator to figure out the distance between frets: http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/Fretting/i-fretcalc.html, but I am not sure how many frets I should have. Any suggestions? Thanks!
Replies
You'll want 14 frets minimum which would be 22 frets on a chromatic (regular guitar) scale. You can have more frets but probably won't use them unless you play with a capo. Here is another fret calc that shows the dulcimer fretting.
http://www.harpkit.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=...
The answer I've seen on here when other people have asked this is to just type in a really high number, like 30 or so, and then leave off the ones you don't have room for. That's what I did on my just-completed first stick dulcimer.
I also used the same calculator, and it leaves out the 6+ fret. If you want one, you should probably select "guitar" from the drop down menu and just don't cut the non-dulcimer fret slots. I used a 25.5" scale with a 20" fretboard. I ended up with 16 frets, which included a 6+ fret on the first octave but not the second octave.