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Newbie Question

Posted by David Webb on April 23, 2011 at 4:49pm in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion

I am building my first CBG and I would like to know what kind of ruler or yardstick I need to buy to set frets at say 1.403 mm. I have sticks with mm and cm but I can't see this kind of measurement. I was told that mm was the easy method to work with.

Thank you,

David

 

 

 

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Replies

  • James Bush April 27, 2011 at 2:45pm
    I used to use a neck that I marked with 25" scale using a tape measure and caliper. worked ok but noticed they would be off after awhile from one neck to another. I went to stewmac.com and bought a metal scale 25" and 25.5" on the other side. It works great and now no screw ups. spend the 40 - 45 bucks , its worth it
  • Ryan Rose April 26, 2011 at 4:55pm
    I'm another who uses metric. I measure the scale length in inches, then convert that to mm for marking the frets. I tried to do it all SAE on the first one, and couldn't get through it. The fret calculators all give decimal measurements, and my ruler goes by fractions. I figured if I had to convert numbers anyway, I might as well go straight to metric and save some trouble. And when something ends up at 72.7 mm, I just get as close as I can.
  • David Webb April 25, 2011 at 9:07am
    Thank you to all of you and I will look into everything you have mentioned here.......David
  • BT Cohosh April 24, 2011 at 9:10pm
    Have you tried some of the online template printers that are available?  Google "wfret" -- it'll print a layout to a given scale-length, no need to measure.
  • JonBouye April 24, 2011 at 6:52pm
    I just finished my 1st build and tried both SAE and MM. My digital calipers reads both as well as the yardstick I have. I found the metric easier to do the fret work. But I think this can be a matter of what a person is used to or their personal preferrence also.
  • Outhouse Instruments April 24, 2011 at 5:25pm

    HMMMM. I've built close to 50 cbg's using good ol' US of A standard measurements w/out any trouble. I use fretcalc for doing frets ... it will figure to mm or the nearest 1/64". That's plenty close.

     

     

    Matt

  • Mike Bingham April 24, 2011 at 12:13pm
    Hey David - I'm with Paul.  I have built several instruments using inches and have never gotten one "right" even using a digital caliper.  Last week built a CBG using metric for the first time and was amazed at how easy and accurate it was. I estimated close to a half mm when needed or rounded up or down if one of those marks was closer to the actual measurement. The measuring stick was a Swanson yardstick from Lowe's.  Seems like it was less than $3.00.  Good luck and enjoy the hobby!
  • Brendan deVallance April 23, 2011 at 8:43pm
    I work in the graphic arts where Schaedler Precision Rules are king. But they are not cheap, being in the 20 dollar range. But they can be ordered on line from many sources. Inches are great for building houses, but if you need tiny increments mm is tops.
  • Paul Nelson April 23, 2011 at 6:41pm
    I also use metric for fretting, and when it comes to that small an increment I just estimate. A millimeter is so tiny to begin with, thousandths or hundredths aren't something you need to worry about. I just round to wholes or halves. Hope this helps!
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