Ugly measurements for fret scale! 22.5 scale length.

Somehow, not really sure what happened, I came up with 22.5" scale instead of the 25.5". I do not have enough room to slide my bridge back 3 inches. I simply cut short somehow. Grrrrr... So moving right along, I have been trying to calculate the fret spacing for 22.5" scale, and indeed no problemo...I got the measurements easy enough from a fret calculator.

Where I am stumped is, the measurements are ugly! I mean very ugly.

22.5" scale

1st fret = 1.2435" distance from nut - 21.2565" from bridge

12th fret = 11.1825" distance from nut - 11.3175 from bridge.

My question is, where the heck do I find that on my measuring tape!??!

1.2435" is just almost 1.25" or 1 1/4" but not quite!

How should I compensate this?

[NOTE to self - Next build, use the scale length that is easy to measure.... oh yeah and remember it's "Measure twice, and cut once not the other way around...]

Replies

Michael Gajeski April 17, 2010 at 11:01pm

with wfret, you can print a template, tape it to your fretboard, and then mark directly off of that. Its quick, easy, and accurate.
Outhouse Instruments April 17, 2010 at 10:14pm

Google and download Fretcalc.
You can set it to give you measurements to the nearest 1/64.

That's pretty easy to do on a good steel rule or even a good tape measure.

Matt
Greg April 17, 2010 at 4:35pm

I use a set of dial calipers and razor blade to mark mine. You can get dial calipers cheap these days from Harbor Freight or Grizzly. I bought a digital set that displays inch and mm for around $15 bucks. Just measure and mark from fret to fret. You just have to do a little math to get the distance between the frets rather than from the nut to each fret. If you buy the 8" calipers you can get at least 1/3 of the frets from the nut and the rest from the last fret you could reach each time you run out of caliper. The accumlative error is going to be much less than using a tape measure and pencil. Hope this makes sense.
Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates April 17, 2010 at 2:58pm

Huzza! I do mine in mm. Intonation will be the biggest challenge. Take special note of the 1/2/3 frets! Make sure they are very close. Easier to be out of wack when doing open chords (unless you tune to open tuning like Open D or Open G)

-WY

Roosterman said:
Print out your fret calculations in mm.
I measure to the nearest 0.5mm, which is amply accurate enough - and a lot closer than +/- 1/4"!! Sure mm is for the kids, and everything else I do in old money, but it does make fretting a whole lot easier :o)
Rex April 17, 2010 at 10:22am

So true! The good news is, the box and board has good intonation! I don't have the frets put in yet, but I do have the 12th fret octave marked, and 3rd and 5th fret harmonics are good.

I was pretty sure that 1/16th would be good enough for the girls I dance with, but wasn't sure the outcome once I got further along, whether any offset would matter.

So using nails for frets... what's the preferred size nail for that? I have some finishing nails (steel) that I thought about using, but was concerned about them being too fat. Also, filing them and crowning them, will be some work, (which I don't mind) just want it to look good but more importantly sound good.

Jeremiah Cornelius said:
Getting your measurements somewhere between 1/16th and 1/32nd of an inch is really good enough. This degree of precision - especially with fat wire nails for frets - will amaze you.

The 3 to 4 decimal places your calculated fractions represent are actually thicker than the pencil lines you will mark. Even a good mitre box will have more variation in it than these scientific measurements.

It's a box and a board. You'd be surprised at how wonderful the intonation is, on a neck that is "close enough".
surffrogg April 17, 2010 at 10:15am

mm is the way to go just pick something close also to make things even easier in the future if ur going to try alot of different scale lengths a recommend the fret chart from harp kits.com
http://www.harpkit.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Produ...
all the measuring allready don fro 13 inch to 31.5 just lay ur fret board on and mark
Roosterman April 17, 2010 at 10:05am

Print out your fret calculations in mm.
I measure to the nearest 0.5mm, which is amply accurate enough - and a lot closer than +/- 1/4"!!
Sure mm is for the kids, and everything else I do in old money, but it does make fretting a whole lot easier :o)
Jeremiah Cornelius April 17, 2010 at 9:53am

Getting your measurements somewhere between 1/16th and 1/32nd of an inch is really good enough. This degree of precision - especially with fat wire nails for frets - will amaze you.

The 3 to 4 decimal places your calculated fractions represent are actually thicker than the pencil lines you will mark. Even a good mitre box will have more variation in it than these scientific measurements.

It's a box and a board. You'd be surprised at how wonderful the intonation is, on a neck that is "close enough".