Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Where's Uranus? on September 21, 2014 at 12:21pm

As in all things, it depends. Mainly on how tight you are going to make your strings, and what you are going to tune to? If you are recycling an acoustic neck, you'll either have to make a very short scale bass, or strip the frets out and use it as a fretless neck.

If you're going shorter scale bass, go with using a separate bridge and tailpiece. I have a 30" scale bass, that has the string length of a 34" scale bass, because there is 4" between the tailpiece and the bridge, the bridge is like midway in the body. For your average 24" acoustic neck, I'd want to leave 4 - 6" if possible. so figure that into your design.

I actually have a commercially built 24" scale bass, and it uses regular bass strings, but they are rather floppy, it has 2 -3 " between bridge and tailpiece.

Permalink Reply by Dan G. on December 25, 2014 at 7:37pm

Hello, I'm sorry, I realize this post is quite old but maybe someone will have email notification or some such and see this. What is the reasoning or formula for the spacing between bridge and tailpiece? Is there a rule of thumb? What would happen if you had no distance, or too much distance etc.? (I mean aside from the effect that would have on scale length etc.) I've seen examples of almost no distance, where the strings kinda dive down immediately after the bridge or where the bridge is crowding the tailpiece at the bottom of the face. Besides not looking very well proportioned, what's the acoustic science going on there?

Permalink Reply by darryl kernaghan on December 25, 2014 at 10:59pm

Dan,while i'm no font of knowledge,remember,effectively ,at the crossing of the bridge you are just looking for a termination.the business MAINLY happens between the nut and bridge,anchorage will effect tone and resonance sure,but you are mainly looking for enough angle to make a crisp bridge effect

Permalink Reply by JL on January 13, 2015 at 1:36am

There is no formula for the spacing between the bridge/saddle and the anchors for the strings.  It is about making sure the strings are anchored solidly. No one wants to be playing and all of a sudden the strings pull out and THWAK you in the face.

It is often easier to anchor the strings in the tail if your instrument has a through neck sticking out through the other end of the box.