So I built my first first cigar box guitar and it has gone ok so far but now I have a problem. I built my guitar with a 25" scale length and when I play the harmonic above the 12th fret my finger rests exactly at the centre of the neck (12.5"). However, when I press my finger down on the fret board the note is not the same. The octave is located about 1" further down towards the nut when I press down with my finger. Anyone know why this is? I have tried lowering/raising the nut and the bridge. The head of my guitar has a 13 degree angle so I thing there is enough tension on the strings. Im not sure what it is. Im not very musically minded so maybe I have missed something? I want to put frets on the guitar so I went and found a fret calculator online and printed it off but again the frets don't correspond to the location of the notes on my guitar.
I would be very grateful if someone could help me.
Thanks
Replies
That link Dan posted works fine in Safari.
Fret find 2D may only work on a Mac??
You mention printing a fret calculator. Does that mean just the measurements or the actual placement template? I use Fret Find 2d which lets you print out the actual spacing of the frets to use as a template, but you have to be careful and not use any additional "scaling" in your printer sittings or it will throw the whole thing off.
I cannot get Fret Find 2 D to work. It will not allow input of scale length. Is it still operational
I just tried it and it works for me.
http://www.ekips.org/tools/guitar/fretfind2d/
Thanks Dan
I still can't make it work. I cannot see a box to input scale length.I will try on my other computer
Was using internet explorer. Works fine on Chrome.
Thanks Coppa
Just a quick word about the height of the action..there are a plenty of misconceptions about this with cigar box guitars. A lot of builders seem to make their guitars with inordinately high action, which is fine to get you started, but if you want to play with a slide AND fingered notes, you need a reasonably low action. If the strings are much more than 1/8" - 3/16"above the fingerboard at the 12th fret, and 1/16" at the nut, then the notes will pull sharp when stopped on the fingerboard, so you'll need to compensate for this, either by where you position the bridge...or with your fingering. If the action is much higher than this, then you'll be limited to slide only in order to play it in tune.
Also, as posted above, with steel strings you need an offset to the bridge ie the bridge is closer to the nut at the treble string than it is at the bass string. The standard offset is approx 1/4" over 3". The saddle will not be straight across the guitar.
When you say you want to add frets, that means the neck is currently fretless? Like Scott says, the farther you have to press a string down to the fretboard, the more sharp the note will be. If the strings are too high off the fretboard, then you will have this problem.
Take a look at this video about string height and see if that helps at all. Also, can you measure how high the strings are at the 12th fret?
http://www.cigarboxnation.com/video/string-action
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