I've got a small Sweet Tin, a couple lengths of wood, a machine head and a pair of Piezo's on the way and I'm not quite sure about how to do this.
I have made a Diddley Bow before, it had a very short scale length, must of been no more than 15 inches, and it featured a P-bass pickup and an E string held in place with three nails and was honestly a little rubbish, so I intend for this to be an improvement, so I have a few questions.
1. what kind of scale length should I work with on this, I was think of a Strat 25.5 scale and then use a Strat neck as a guide for fret markings?
2. what kind of string clearance should I have between the wood and the string, so it doesn't affect my playing?
3. which string should I use, I was think a d string or a String tuned up or down to d or would something else be more practical?
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You can use any units you want since its linear math and it just gives you the portions
24 inches, 64 cm, 18 attoparsecs, 0.35 smoots, 9 whiffles, 1521 Muggeseggeles.
attoparsecs and muggeseggeles are handy units.:)
I wondered if anyone would look those up...
I am very confused with all this mathematics so I went with the 25.5 scale and used a strat neck as reference for position markers, just up to the 12 fret mark though.
The oversimplified version is the next fret is about 5% closer to the bridge than the last fret.
The mathematics are quite easy.
However.. All those little fractions of a mm that happen in builds NOT done by a CNC machine (or a very skilled luthierian I may add) are what give an instrument it's character.
I'm all for living with odd slightly off frets with strange harmonics. In fact, I do love them.
So forget about the precision mathematics. Go with it.. It will make that guitar unique and whatever you play on it, can never be placed 'exactly like' that on any other instrument.
It's just something to think about.
Brian May loves his guitar :)
Edit.. I love my guitars too.
If it doesn't have frets then you don't have to worry about scale lengths.
A good way to work out where the frets would go from any scale length is this..
Measure the distance between where your nut and bridge is (these can be any distance apart)
Multiply by 0.3439 = fret 1, then multiply by 0.9439 = fret 2, then multiply by 0.9439... You get the point.
Check your 12th fret marker is in the middle.. Then your good to go.
This way you can just build, then after the build that's when you work out what scale length you have. Hassle free.
That's an interesting method of calculation, I will have to try that, I will be doing it up to the 12th fret position, I don't think I will need position markers after that, especially with a D string, but you never know.
it's a simple calculation, each fret is closer to the bridge/saddle than the last by a factor of the twelfth root of two or 94.387431268% the distance away.
fret 0 = bridge_to_nut_length
fret 1 = bridge_to_nut_length * .94387431268
fret 2 = bridge_to_nut_length * .94387431268 * .94387431268
fret 3 = bridge_to_nut_length * .94387431268 * .94387431268 * .94387431268
ad. nauseum...
Nice.. *takes note of that number
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