The Nut and the Bridge

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Glenn Reither on June 27, 2012 at 12:21am

It doesn't really matter, but your bridge should probably be higher anyway for box top clearance and string break/bridge pressure (see below). If you will only play slide on it, the nut can be very high. If you think you will play some fretless finger stuff on it too, then a nut about 4mm high will give you comfortable clearance so you can lay in a bit with the slide but not too much which would make fingering the fretboard awkward.

The bridge - ha! I'm almost afraid to say given the chapters written recently on this. You need it to be high enough to get a decent break over it for bridge pressure, and keeping about 4 to 5 mm clearance at what would be the 17th fret.  If you build some relief angle into your neck, you can have a higher bridge without the action getting too high at the box end. That will also give you some more clearance over the box top so you aren't rapping it with fingers or pick and sending clacky sounds to your piezo.

Also keep in mind that the best builders, I'm told, don't contribute to these discussions so any advice you get here, including mine, is probably wrong :)

Permalink Reply by C.W. on June 27, 2012 at 12:27am

Haha! Any advice is welcome. Im an extreme beginner with little knowledge of guitars or wood working. Im gonna try to post a couple pics of it.  If you see something wrong, let me know. :)

 

Thanks for the advice Glenn!

Permalink Reply by PhilUSAFRet on June 27, 2012 at 5:58am

In general, on a "traditional" stringed instrument, the heigth of the saddle is set to get the strings at a specific height at a given fret, based on it's scale.  I have seen several basses and slide guitar that produce  level string heigt the full length of th fret board, thougth I'm not sure what kind of "intonation" that produces.  A lot depends on the quality of sound you are seeking. For more info, google guitar...setting intonation, string height.

 

Permalink Reply by C.W. on June 27, 2012 at 1:39pm

Thank you.