#1 resource for Cigar Box Guitars, Free Plans, How-To, Parts & More!

Fret calculator

Hey guys. The neck for my first CBG is taking shape. I whipped up a jig and made the scarf joint for the head stock today. Glue is drying now. When that's done, I'll get to work on the nut then fret it. In my short time here I've seen a few fret calculators. I can find the Stew-Mac one and the Jelly Belly one. But I could have sworn there was another floating around that actually allowed you to calculate the frets and print up a full size template. I'm doubting the accuracy of the stew mac calculator. When you convert it to metric from fraction, it just changes from inches to mm without changing the measurements. For example, 20 frets, 24.5 scale length, the 11th fret is listed at 11.522 inches. If you convert the fret board to millimeters, the 11th fret is then listed as 11.522mm from the nut. No way that is correct. And even if one of them is correct, my dial calipers aren't big enough to measure 11.522 and I can't get 3 place decimal accurate with a tape measure.

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Justin on May 3, 2018 at 4:49pm

I appreciate your help! With your guidance, I was finally able to complete my 8 year build!

;-)

Just joking. Thanks to the advice I found here, I finished that CBG a few days after that post. It came out great, and my brother plays it to this day. (It was a christmas gift for him.) I'll have to see if I can dig up a pic. It's funny that this post just started appearing in my mentions. My brother and I just started gathering materials to build a few more CBGs. Two for gifts for friends and I think maybe one for myself this time. I'll be checking in here again!

Even though I was already done, I appreciate you folks who took the time to respond, even years later. The great thing about a forum like this is that even though I no longer needed the advice, some other new builder might have found this thread and been helped. Good on you guys.