I am working on a school project with my eight-year-old. We've got this far, and he wants to fret it. I've been perusing all the posts for wisdom, and came up with this solution:
Distance from front of nut to inside of bridge is 24"
The nut rises 1/16" above the neck.
The neck rises 1/8 the above the body.
The Lego bridge rises 1/8 above the body.
Using calculations from harp kit.com tells me frets should be the following distances from the nut:
1.37" for the 1st
2.618" for the 2nd
3.818" for the 3rd
Etc
Down to
12" for the 12th fret
I'd really appreciate anyone telling me if we are half-cocked. Is this too crude to fret? If not, are we missing in our calculations? Should I adjust any of those bits to be more accurate due to height variations? I just want it to be playable, not perfect. I know now we should not have cut that hole in it, but we are doing this by the seat of our pants.
I was thinking of stringing one string and marking the frets by tuner, but ohmygod.
It worked!!! After fixing the bridge per Oily's advice, and amalgamating all the rest of your advice, we switched out the nut to the attached picture, and it sounds like angels playing! The Lego before the bridge was necessary to keep the 4th string from popping off. We probabably could have gone w/o it as a three-string.
The neck is too messed up to fret, so I am saving that as a summer project, and I told my son we would "electrify" it once the fretboard was straight, and his eyes grew into saucers. I think I know what we need to do, thanks to all your comments!
Sweet!! And if you have problems with the center string popping out of the slot, you can put a single screw into the middle of the headstock and run the string around it so that it stays straight instead of at an angle.
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The neck is too messed up to fret, so I am saving that as a summer project, and I told my son we would "electrify" it once the fretboard was straight, and his eyes grew into saucers. I think I know what we need to do, thanks to all your comments!
Amy
image.jpg
Sweet!! And if you have problems with the center string popping out of the slot, you can put a single screw into the middle of the headstock and run the string around it so that it stays straight instead of at an angle.
I do that a lot... it helps with downward tension on the nut as well for that string...
Here is another method of fretting traditionally used on lutes.Nylon line is tied around the neck and the knot sealed with heat
http://www.cigarboxnation.com/forum/topics/dulcimer-fret-spacing
Is this tcorrect guys?
http://mountaindulcimer.ning.com/profiles/blogs/ultra-easy-guide-to...
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