Official Luthiers Forum!

Here is a short history of why I fell I should become a luthier, whether it's a hobby or a career. I am twenty one years old and I have been playing guitar since high school. Its the only hobby I have ever had that has lasted more than 6 mouths I can't seem to put down my guitar, and I have so much passion for music and the guitar itself. I would always find myself researching how the guitar worked and I even took my first squire strat modified the pick guard and installed humbuckers with a H-S-H config. I spend all my money on my guitar, pedals, and amp. Anyway I have always been pretty handy and I have taken alot of tech classes in high school and I love working with my hands. Being a lefty I can't seem to find the guitars I want ( even though i don't have the money for them in the first place).

So I have decided to clean up my basement, get some tools and get started. So far I have found many very useful tools down there like planes, calipers, and various other woodworking tools. I am still lacking a nice set of chisels, spoke plane, and a handful of power tools. I don"t mind working with hand tools in fact I would find building my first guitar with only hand tools to be very gratifying. with that said I feel I would like to have at least a drill press, router, and ban saw in the near future. I have done a lot of research on the tools for luthiery and the build process. I have also watched a lot of videos on how a guitar is build and have basic woodworking knowledge.

With all that said I have just one question I can't seem to find an answer for... What determines the length of the fret board? I am currently drawing up the plans for my first two guitars on auto CAD and I need this measurement. I understand how scale lengths work, and that the nut needs to be 25 inches from the bridge for a 25 inch scale, and I know how intonation works, I can properly set up my guitars. I also know that the amount of frets you are planning on having will play a factor in this dimension. So maybe I just need someone to measure me a fret board that is slotted for a 25 inch scale with 24 frets. I am sure all fret boards slotted with a 25 inch scale with 24 frets will be all the same length to your last fret.

Well I went on longer than I though I would. If you have any advice for me, or have an answer to my question thank you for your time. and i guess anyone who was willing to read all that thanks for your time also.

Welcome to the forum Mike. If you're asking about how to calculate fret spacing, there are a number of tools online including Stew Macs fret calculator. You enter the scale length you want and the number of frets. You can then print out a template to enable you to measure board length and/or to cut fret slots at the proper spacing.

Welcome Mike! Filippo has already taken care of you, but I thought I would just jump in and wish you luck!

Ken

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http://www.casperguitar.com

Welcome to the forum Mike.

Regarding your assumption of fret board lengths. Sorry ...not quite.

If you are using a Nut and cut your fret board to the length of your last fret...guess what...you won't have anything left for the fret to be set into.

Run a search for fret scale calculator programs....lost of free ones out there.

Enter in the scale length .
It will spew out the positions of all the frets
Count how many you want and add a bit for the last fret to sit properly. I usually add
about 3/4 the distance to the next fret position. Or in your case 3/4 the distance to the 25 fret.

Now if your using a Zero fret. Well then you gotta add some length before the zero for that fret to set into...I add a 1/4 inch.

So the fret board is the length from the nut to the last fret plus 3/4 the distance to the next fret position.

With a zero fret, the fret board is the length from the nut to the last fret plus 3/4 the distance to the next fret position, plus 1/4 inch.

These additions of 3/4 length and 1/4 inch vary from builder to builder.


blessings
Padma

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Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


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I generally start with cutting the fretboard off at the 25th fret on a 24 fret guitar. (23rd for a 22 fret). Then if I feel is should be a little shorter for pickup placement etc I will trim some, but for an auto cad layout that measurement should work well. Someone already mentioned the Stewmac fret calculator, just type in 25 frets and your scale length.

Oh, and welcome

-John

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John Thiessen
http://www.iszacguitars.com

If you design a body where you could access the upper frets, you could make the overall length as long as you want.
I build lap steels, and when i have no fretboard pickup, i go all the way to the bridge pickup.
Spacing gets very tight up there.
Kind of like a mando.

welcom mike, great to have you here, as flippo stated somewhere around 19 inches. all the guys talking about fret calculators are right, but anytime you are working with something that is going to be 24 frets its really easy to just do it in your head, half of 25 is 12.5 which is your 12th fret distance, halve that again and you get 6.25, your 24th fret distance add those together you get 18.75 + .25 for end and there you have it, 19. can save you a little time from needing to look up a fret calculator if you do it that way. good luck with your builds!

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~shad peters

http://www.flickr.com/photos/petersinstruments/
http://petersinstruments.blogspot.com/
http://petersinstruments.com/

Thank you everyone its all adding up and I found the stewmac measurements so i know where the bridges go and everything. I can't wait to start building but I still have a lot of cleaning to do and my basement might have mold.... atleast a lot of the stuff I am tossing had mold on it ( real moisture issue down there that has gone unchecked for a few years now) I am tossing out almost everything that is beyond repair, yeah its that bad. I have yet to see mold creeping up the walls haha. I watch craigslist every day for tools and I dream guitars haha. itchy all over i cant wait ( that might be from the mold though)