Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Julian Perry on April 7, 2010 at 10:27pm

As I understand it, as long as the nut to bridge measurement remains 24.5, the bridge can be most anywhere on the box. I would make sure the bridge is on the surface or soundboard of the box and not right on the back edge, as this will transfer more vibrations from the strings and therefore 'sound' to the box. Just for reference, the 12th fret is halfway between the nut and bridge. It doesn't matter if the last fret is not right at or on the box. With smaller boxes and standard guitar length scales this is not always possible.
My 4 string necks are always 43-45mm wide, which gives me a 13mm string spacing and 1-2mm spare each side to round off. I've found this works for me, but everyone is different and there are no rules! As has already been said though, measure, measure, measure again for luck then cut. most of all, enjoy the process!

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan on April 8, 2010 at 3:10am

I find this very useful
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scale_(string_instruments)

i'm using a 25.6 which equals to 650mm on my full scale.

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Permalink Reply by rockinfrasse on April 8, 2010 at 8:26am

Saying i should use the wider then, its about 41 mm. Compared this with my classic acoustic guitar, should give me the same spacing as that. About the bridge, was planning to place it somewhat 1/4 of the box in from the tale sounds alright?

Checked out your guitars, looked great!

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Permalink Reply by James Carpenter on April 8, 2010 at 9:11am

The length of the scale is from the nut to the bridge, that is your 24.5 inch length >>

Add to that the distance from the nut to the 12th fret is the same distance (give or take a little, for intonation) from the 12th fret to the bridge - that's where the octave lives, the 12th fret. Use a tuner during setup; if an open G is the same as a g at the 12th, say, you're good. If all's well otherwise, the fifths, harmonics, string-to-string tuning and so on should be right on - or certainly close enough. You can fudge a floating bridge around to make it "just nice" intonation-wise; fixed bridges take a little more thought up-front, but nothing's impossible.

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Permalink Reply by rockinfrasse on April 8, 2010 at 9:33am

Didnt understand all of that James, isnt that right? a 24.5 inch scale is 24.5 from nut to bridge?? (give or take some for intonation)

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Permalink Reply by Alan Roberts on April 8, 2010 at 10:16am

rockinfrasse said:

Didnt understand all of that James, isnt that right? a 24.5 inch scale is 24.5 from nut to bridge?? (give or take some for intonation)

What James is saying is that the 12th fret should be (almost) exactly halfway between nut and bridge. If you press the string down on the 12th fret, you should go up exactly one octave. The distance need not be precise; in fact, if you look at the saddles on acoustic guitars you'll see that they are at a slight angle. On an electric guitar, you'll see that each string is adjusted differently. On a first build, this is probably not worth worrying about.

Does that help?

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Permalink Reply by rockinfrasse on April 8, 2010 at 10:33am

yes thanks

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Permalink Reply by James Carpenter on April 8, 2010 at 11:10am

The "almost" part of intonation is due to the different string gauges' makeup - windings, plain, or so on - not sounding exactly an octave at the 12th fret. A string at a pitch will sound sharp at the 12th with an equidistant nut-to-12th-fret/12th-fret-to-bridge measurement. "How much" is action and other variables; "cut and try" works best. There's a lot of physics and acoustics going on, but generally the bridge will be a little (varies) closer to the butt end of the instrument. That's the Material World for you. It's maybe fussier than you might feel like tackling first time out, which is fine, but in the future it'll pay off.

But yeah, a "24.5" scale" means the nut-to-bridge distance is 24.5"; 12.25"then would be as good as the 12th fret position. Good luck.

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Permalink Reply by Julian Perry on April 8, 2010 at 9:08pm

If it was me, I would go with the wider one, but that's only a personal preference, because I'm not much of a player and find the wider spacing easier for me. Also on my 4 string builds so far, I haven't used truss-rods, so I figured the thicker the necks, the less chance of them bending under the string tension. So far, so good! That bridge placement should be fine, I reckon.

rockinfrasse said:

Saying i should use the wider then, its about 41 mm. Compared this with my classic acoustic guitar, should give me the same spacing as that. About the bridge, was planning to place it somewhat 1/4 of the box in from the tale sounds alright?

Checked out your guitars, looked great!

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Permalink Reply by rockinfrasse on April 19, 2010 at 8:34am

Hi everyone. was working with the neck for my first CBG. Was planning to use a brass
bolt for nut. One question popped up... Measuring from the nut to fret. Is
"Number one" or
"Number two" the right way to measure? (I would think "Number one" right(?), beacause the strings would land on top of the bolt.) Hope someone understands and can help me.

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Permalink Reply by Alan Roberts on April 19, 2010 at 11:01am

The answer is "1." Measure from where the string begins to vibrate.

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Permalink Reply by MichaelS Country Boy Guitars on April 20, 2010 at 1:58am

Number one is correct, this is the point were the string stops touching the nut. If it were a normal square edged nut it would be the edge but on the round bolt nut its the top of the radius. I like using the treaded bolt for nuts, they never buzz and the spacing is adjustable and if you make a 3 string and want to change it to 4 string you don't need to mess with the nut, its almost foolproof. Nice illustration by the way, if you add right and wrong to it it would be helpful to other new builders.
rockinfrasse said:

Hi everyone. was working with the neck for my first CBG.


Was planning to use a brass bolt for nut. One question popped up...


Measuring from the nut to fret. Is "Number one" or
"Number two" the right way to measure?

(I would think "Number one" right(?), beacause the strings would land on top of the bolt.)

Hope someone understands and can help me.

• ▶ Reply

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