I am building my first CBG with frets. I am looking for suggestions how much above the frets the strings should be. Also about how wide should the bridge be.
Thanks,
Art
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I keep em about 3/32 at the first and 3/16 at the 12th for slide. That works good for me and people I make guitars for seem to like that spacing. For fretting I go about 1/64th on the 1st string (smallest) at the first fret and 1/32nd on the 6th string (or largest one). 5/64th for the 1st at the 12th and 7/64th on the 6th at the 12th. I make a brass nut extender to raise up the string height at the 1st fret if I want to switch to slide. As far as the bridge, you could make it as wide as you want as long as your strings fit. I suggest a minimum 1/4 inch space from the sides of the bridge to the strings, 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch spacing between strings.
As far as width goes, I use standard 1x2s for necks. I make three stringers with the middle string in the middle, with 1/2 inch spacing between the middle string and the outer strings. So the bridge should be roughly 2.5 inches or so. But that is just a guideline.
String height depends on what kind of playing you like to do and what kind of action you prefer. You can get away with higher strings for slide work. Here's something I found somewhere, pinned to the bulletin board over my work bench, and never looked at it again until just now -I usually just mess around with the action until it feels right to me- but it might be of some help to you as a guideline.
(From top of fret to bottom of string)
1st fret = .4mm - 1mm
12th fret = 1.9mm - 2.8mm (acoustic)
1.2mm - 1.9mm (electric)