Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Richard Holmes on July 8, 2013 at 4:54am

Which generator site? Maybe they just were wrong.

Another possibility: If what the site gave you was a graphic, which you then printed, are you certain your printer printed it at exactly 100% scale?

How far is the 12th fret from the zero fret?

Permalink Reply by Vincent Cuenca on July 8, 2013 at 9:22am

I think you may have at least part of the answer there.  The site did give me a graphic.  It also asked me for a number of other measurements that I didn't quite understand (amount of taper, slot width at the bridge, bridge height, eyelash thickness...) and that may have thrown things off.  I didn't have a normal guitar to copy, so I went with a template.  I may have to borrow my brother-in-law's guitars for the next ones. :-)

I'll get a measurement this evening and get back to you.

Permalink Reply by William McCauley on July 8, 2013 at 5:40am

I prefer to use the chart from Stew-Mac and lay out my own fret locations. 

Permalink Reply by Tony Brown on July 8, 2013 at 5:47am

All I did for my 1st and subsequent builds was lay a 1" wide thin wooden Batten (an off cut) on the fretboard of a normal guitar and mark a line on the Batten at all the Guitars frets from Nut Center to the 24th fret.

Lay the Batten on your CBGs neck and mark the fret positions.

Put the bridge at 25.5 "  from the nut and its always an octave at the 12th fret.

Permalink Reply by Mark Kortuem on July 8, 2013 at 10:40am

I use a 25" scale. The calculator I use is from Stewart Macdonald. I usually have to move the bridge back, but only

1/8-1/4 ". I would redo the numbers through the calculator and try to find an error. If it still plays, It's a good guitar.

 

Permalink Reply by Jeff McFadden on July 8, 2013 at 4:03pm

What's a zero fret?  Did your bridge move come out to be about the same as, say, the distance from the nut to your first fret?

Permalink Reply by wormil on July 9, 2013 at 4:01am

Zero fret is just using a fret in place of a nut.

Permalink Reply by Jeff McFadden on July 8, 2013 at 4:12pm

Let me second what William McCauley said: Google a conversion from your chosen scale length in inches to metric, go to StewMac and enter your metric number from Google for your scale length to get your fret measurements.  Then buy a metric "yard stick" from Lowe's (it's yellow, mm on one edge and inches on the other) and lay out your fingerboards from scratch in mm.  Works for me.

The reason to go metric is that mm's are smaller than 16ths of an inch.  Closer to 26ths of an inch.  (A 13 mm wrench fits a half inch bolt head real well.)  The chart tells you to put the next fret whatever, say 56.254 mm, and that's an even 56 + a half a pencil line.  Inches are just too big and awkward.

Permalink Reply by QGolden on July 9, 2013 at 3:12am

If bridge placement is the only issue, I think your interpretation of a "zero fret" might got you off track. If the pitch is off all the way down the neck, you might have a stack tolerance issue. Did you layout from the nut down, or did you measure from fret to fret for your layout?

If moving the bridge back allows you to tune it then don't worry, just play it the way it is.

Permalink Reply by Tim LaFave on July 10, 2013 at 7:28am

Essentially you must put the bridge the same distance from the 12th fret as the 12th fret is from the nut in order to have correct tuning. If your template was marketed as a "25" scale", you should have 12 1/2" from the nut marking to the 12th fret marking. Then you must measure another 12 1/2" from the 12th fret to place your bridge. If it was another figure, then that's the figure you must duplicate.