Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on February 22, 2013 at 4:31pm

Steve,

Figure your scale length first (nut to bridge). Then, figure out where on the box you want your bridge; traditionally, that has been somewhere between 1/3 to 1/4 the length of the top, in from where your tailpiece will be. Yes, greater tension, as supplied by a combination of bridge height, and string break angle ( the angle the strings make as they come over the bridge on the tailpiece end) is important to driving the box acoustically. Are you building fretted or fretless slide? If fretted, then your bridge height will be lower than if fretless. Also, will you be going with a trapeze tail, or will this be a traditional neck-through with 2-3 inches of stick coming out the tail end? You could also do a string-through-the-body like a trad acoustic guitar or a Strat. Lots of things to think about and compromise on.

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Permalink Reply by Steve, telson band on February 22, 2013 at 5:07pm

Thanks for your answer Ron, I am building a fretted neck with a dovetail attachment of the neck to the box for greater volume for my soundboard to ring. I may use a 25.5" scale length. Its 4 string type. Also I am going to use a mandolin tailpiece as its the perfect size & I have one laying around. I can use every other slot for my 4 strings with this tailpiece too. Also it looks great. I have a floating bridge that will provide string clearance for strumming so I will have to angle my neck back a few degrees.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on February 23, 2013 at 6:40am

Yep neck angle of about 2 degrees should get you there. Post pics when you get finished, looking forward to it.

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Permalink Reply by The Phrygian Kid on February 23, 2013 at 8:46am

With the viol family you can adjust the tailgut to fine tune the position of the tailpiece, and there is indeed a formula to calculate what is deemed to be the best most musical position for it. However with other instruments where the tailpiece is firmly anchored at the end pin this is less of a consideration than the scale length, the neck join location and the body (in our case box) size, so as mr oil says it's pretty much the number you're left with after you sort all those things out. As long as its lower than the bridge and the strings are long enuff to reach the distance it'll work, don't sweat on it. Have fun

Ps I do much much greater angle than two degrees, I'd be looking more like eight to ten. You can work it out for your bridge with some simple trig when you know the bridge height (adjacent side) and scale length (hypotenuse) as long as you have a calculator than can do aSine aCos etc, message me if you want a hand with this..

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Permalink Reply by Steve, telson band on February 23, 2013 at 1:11pm

Thanks Kid, I thought I can put a straight edge from the bridge to the nut to get my neck angle?

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Permalink Reply by The Phrygian Kid on February 24, 2013 at 5:12am

Haha once it's glued in, sure :)

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Permalink Reply by Steve, telson band on April 25, 2013 at 11:16am

Not been on net for a while, I been busy building! Alot of work building it like an acustic guitar. I need advice on wiring a single pole pickup to a volume & tone pot? Any advice for good sites. The sites I find is just rubbish. Its all humbucker humbucker humbucker. Or lots of pickups not just one!

Steve

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Permalink Reply by The Phrygian Kid on April 26, 2013 at 2:35am

The circuit is essentially the same, just using a pot of lower resistance (usually 250k)

The best thing you can do with guitar circuits is spend a few minutes getting your head around how they work. Think of it like plumbing and water, wires are hoses, pots are valves or taps, and the ground is the drain.

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Permalink Reply by ChickenboneJohn on April 26, 2013 at 9:33pm

There's no magic..whatever works is good.

The length of the string from bridge to tailpiece anchor cannot affect the tension in the string - (assuming all the other factors remain the same, ie the scale length, tuning and the string itself). What will change is the pressure exerted by the string on the bridge and the top of the guitar. This will increase as the break angle over the bridge increases(as a result in changing the distance form bridge to anchor point).

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