diatonic scale

Posted by thomas h. a. brown on April 17, 2013 at 9:53am

hi guys  i am building a 3 string for my nephew want to make it with shorter scale length may be 18 to 20 inch would it be the same as 25 inch  i.e.  use frets 2 4 5 7 9 11 12 ? any help will be greatly appreciated  thanks

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  • thomas h. a. brown April 17, 2013 at 6:34pm

    hey guys thanks for the info was a big help  will try to post pics and may be video if i can when done  again thanks

  • Sean Laffey April 17, 2013 at 12:08pm

    Yes the frets are in the same relationship but the actual spacing in cm  would depend on scale length. Go into a music shop with a tape measure and try out a few instruments to get a feel for the sizes 

    Tenor banjos have shorter scale lengths than guitars and the Barnes and Mullins 17 fret model would be a good choice as it's an intermediate  instrument from a mandolin to the full sized banjo, recommended here in Ireland when kids shift to the banjo from the mando.


    As for strings, try  googling for gauges for instruments, try  the Irish tenor banjo ( the jazz tenor uses heavier gauge strings)  and the  tenor guitar  or the octave mandola, they'd be shorter scale than the guitar and  would work better. I've built a Tenessee music box dulcimer  and strung it with  banjo strings, works fine and doesn't put too much strain on the instrument.

  • Mark Kortuem April 17, 2013 at 10:29am

    Yes it will be the same. The distance will be different. !8-20" scale length is about the same as a baritone uke.  You can go to stew-mac and find their fret calculator. It asks for scale length, number of frets, and type of instrument. Also w-fret will work.

  • Scott aka Farmer Ted April 17, 2013 at 10:27am

    Stewmac.com has a great fret calculator. Find website and look in the "frettinjg supplies" section. You can choose for any length, number of frets, and type of instrument. For short scale dulcimer/strummers an ideal set-up for tuning/strings is open G...use the ADG strings from standard set of strings and tune the A string down to G for a GDg tuning. Reason? Shorter scale length usually requires heavier gauge strings to be able to bring up to pitch. Guitar strings are designed for standard guitar scale length. When shortening scale length, often the strings will snap before getting to pitch (not always, but it does happen).

    Cheers

  • 58Deluxe April 17, 2013 at 10:20am

    Google a guitar Scale length calculator. There are many built-in online, with different options

    The layout is a mathmatical one, that can be layed out geometricly with a compass on paper, to

    understand that can't take a different scale length and just skip every other fret & have it work for

    accurate half step jumps that every fret should be (xcept for b/c & e/f).

    Heres one:

    http://www.tundraman.com/Guitars/FretCalc/index.php

    very different from a diatonic musical scale (a modal arrangement of notes)

    Good Luck

     

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