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Permalink Reply by Henry Strat-o-varius Lowman on December 11, 2010 at 6:48am

Outside of the resonance of the box being used, I cannot think of any. You picked the main two. Just make sure your frets are seated and installed properly, and make sure your pickups are properly grounded. (Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you how tricky correct fret spacing can be. Check out the forum. It will connect you to a fret calculator. Your octave point, I believe, will be halfway between the bridge and the nut. That would be where to place the twelfth fret.) Hope this helps.  :-) 

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Permalink Reply by Soul Cat Guitar Uke and Amp on December 11, 2010 at 5:18pm

If I were going for my first fretting job I'd find a friend with a guitar with the scale I wanted and I'd make myself a template, measuring from the middle of the frets. I've had good luck with it. Hope you do.....

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Permalink Reply by YeahDoIt on December 12, 2010 at 12:17am

Shaping the headstock and holes for tuners were major challenges for me but I do not own many tools. The recessed part under the cigar box lid was hard for me to make but I do not own a chisel. Putting strings on and tuning was frustrating. So many ways to tune and easy to break strings. Just work slowly, be patient, take breaks.

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Permalink Reply by Diane in Chicago on December 12, 2010 at 3:21am

I respectfully disagree with Blackwatch.  Even a half millimeter of error in measuring can make for a wonky note in your scale, and that will disappoint you every time you play.  Use a printable template, doublecheck that it is accurate at the 12th fret (for example, that it measures exactly 12" at the octave for a 24" scale) and mark your frets with a very pointy pencil.

And when you use that printed scale, move the zero fret back 1/16" of an inch, this helps to counteract the effect of the strings stretching when playing on the lowest frets and then they tend to go a bit sharp.

 

IMHO!

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Permalink Reply by Mark Bliss on December 12, 2010 at 5:44am

I like to use an exacto knife or similar for precision wood marking. Even the sharpest pencil only works well for one mark for me.

The compensated nut/zero fret is a good idea for fretted (or mostly fretted) playing, but I am not sure that "moving it back" is clear enough a tip to prevent someone from moving it the wrong way........

 

Have fun!

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Permalink Reply by Don Thompson on December 12, 2010 at 5:58am

It remains a mystery to me also why people think measureing to the center of a rounded over fret to the next rounded over fret can be accurate or for that matter easier. I use StewMac's, no big deal, others like other calculators, thats cool. I have a metric rule which I find easiest for me to round off. I like StewMac's for the compensated bridge setback
 calculation. I don't want to only build scale lengths that a "friend's guitar has"  that path seems very limiting to me and teaches me nothing.

Don
Diane in Chicago said:

I respectfully disagree with Blackwatch.  Even a half millimeter of error in measuring can make for a wonky note in your scale, and that will disappoint you every time you play.  Use a printable template, doublecheck that it is accurate at the 12th fret (for example, that it measures exactly 12" at the octave for a 24" scale) and mark your frets with a very pointy pencil.

And when you use that printed scale, move the zero fret back 1/16" of an inch, this helps to counteract the effect of the strings stretching when playing on the lowest frets and then they tend to go a bit sharp.

 

IMHO!

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Permalink Reply by Diane in Chicago on December 12, 2010 at 6:14am

okay, then, move it AWAY from the bridge.

Mark Bliss said:

I like to use an exacto knife or similar for precision wood marking. Even the sharpest pencil only works well for one mark for me.

The compensated nut/zero fret is a good idea for fretted (or mostly fretted) playing, but I am not sure that "moving it back" is clear enough a tip to prevent someone from moving it the wrong way........

 

Have fun!

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Permalink Reply by Soul Cat Guitar Uke and Amp on December 12, 2010 at 7:03am

You guys are absolutely right, no sense in doing anything half correct. One should learn to do something right from the beginning.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Bliss on December 12, 2010 at 7:18am

Sorry Diane, I knew what you meant, it just seems to cause some confusion when what we consider common terms, (UP the fretboard, DOWN the neck, whatever) causing extended conversations that seem to just cause more confusion......

Just trying to make sure it was clear what you intended. Sometimes its hard to convey our intentions with just words without causing confusion, I have done it enough times to know!

Thanks again!

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