So I printed up a scale template today and laid it on my neck. I'm having trouble making sense of my measurements. I've been planning on a 24.5" scale length, but I think I'm going to have adjust that to a 24" scale length. With my box size, I'm only going to end up with like 17 frets on the neck. Does that sound right? I have another box of similar dimensions only it's a little shorter. It would get more frets on the neck. But not being a player, I don't know how many need to be there. I know there are no rules, but I'd hate to get this thing finished and find out all the good songs require a 19th fret. ;-) A longer neck wouldn't really help since the scale length would remain the same. So a shorter box would help, but may affect the sound. I guess I'm just a confused person.
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17 frets plenty all the notes start again after the 12 just higher sounding
Thanks Mark. And you're right, I should keep my guitar downstairs. I keep meaning to restring it and learn to strum out some sort of elementary tune. A simple blues riff or something. Well, half the battle is over. It's downstairs. I still can't play crap, but it's downstairs!
Besides, the attic is no place for a guitar. Get it out of there!
I think copying is a good way to start. Keeps you from making simple mistakes or hurting your head overthinking it. Doesnt work out, do it again!
And of course, Have fun!
Justin, Save yourself all that anquish and headache. Dig your Ibanez out of the attic and mimic that. Make a layout stick from it and it'll make short work of the fret and bridge layout. Why do all those calculations when someone else has already done them for you. It would be good to look at the Ibanez for other reasons as well, i.e., "headstock too thick for the tuners" problem.
Justin said:
I built 2 for my kids, one 14" and 16" scale:
[IMG]http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f333/mookie098/P1010986.jpg[/IMG]
Oooh - been there, done that on the headstock thickness thing. I think we all have!
Justin said:
Thanks Diane. You're right, as a new builder, I should not sweat the details so much. As for a new player, you'd be right again, if I were making it for myself. I can't carry a tune in a bucket, it doesn't matter how many frets I put on it. But I'm building this as a present for my brother, and he's already a pretty fair guitar player. So I'm sort of shooting for a playable instrument. I'm ok with the carpentry part of this. I've been working with wood for a long time and I'm fortunate to have a fully stocked wood shop. I feel confident I can make a thing that looks like a CBG and make it nice. It's the musical end that hard for me. The intonation, scale length, fretting etc. That's all new to me, so I'm just doing my research, asking you kind folks lots of dumb questions. For instance, I learned today that the tuners I'm going to use aren't made to work with the 3/4 wood my neck is made from. So I'm going to have to thin the head a bit. Had I thought to check that ahead of time, I could have removed material from the head with the jointer, no problem. But I didn't know it until after I had scarfed my head and glued it up. That little angle is going to make thinning the head a bit trickier on the jointer. Lots of little mistakes to overcome. ;-)
If you are a new player, you're probably going to be happy playing only the first octave of notes for a while. Also, as a new builder, it is harder to get perfect intonation up in those 12+ frets anyway. So don't sweat it.
When you get to be a better player, you can build another one with more frets!
Justin said:
My box is about 10.25" long. I decided that the bridge would look right about 1.5" from the end of the box. So that gives me 8.75" from the bridge to where the neck comes out of the box. If my scale length is 24.5", that leaves 15.75" of neck sticking out of the box. (Not counting the head) Looking at it, it just seems awfully short to me. I could easily make a longer neck, but the only way to get more neck sticking out of the box would be to move the bridge further up the box. But in order to leave room for the pick up, sound holes and still leave some box lid intact, I don't have much room to move the bridge around.
I may be puzzling over nothing. It *seems* short to me, but I'm not a guitarist. So maybe it's not. I guess I could dig my Ibanez electric out of the attic and measure it up and compare my dimensions to a proper guitar dimensions.
I guess I just brought it up to hear what you guys had to say on the subject of neck length vs. how many playable frets the instrument has.
There are 3 factors that interact here: Scale length, bridge placement, and number of frets to the body.
Where do you want the theoretical bridge? Measure from there to where the neck will join the body, and subtract that from your scale length. Look on your fret calculations for that scale length and see what fret will be closest to the neck joint.
Example: I want the bridge at least 1/4 of the box length from the tail for acoustic reasons. Knock along the length of the box and you can get an idea of how the top resonates from different places. Also, don't forget that the actual bridge will be 1/4" or so further toward the tail than the actual scale length places it, for compensation.
So, on a 10" box, say I want the theoretical bridge 7.25" from the neck joint, and I want a 24.5" scale.
24.5 - 7.25 = 17.25
The stewmac calculator for 24.5" puts the 21st fret at 17.216" from the nut, so that will put my bridge right about where I want it, and I'll have as many frets to play on as my telecaster has.
If that's too many frets, you can shorten the scale and/or move the bridge towards the tail. If it isn't enough frets, you can increase the scale and/or move the bridge away from the tail.
I rarely play over the 17th fret, but an avid rock lead player might not be happy with less than two full octaves (24).
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