What is Scale Length?

WHAT IS SCALE LENGTH?

A guitar's scale length is calculated by measuring the distance from the front edge of the nut, where it butts against the end of the fingerboard, to the center of the 12th (octave) fret, then doubling that measurement. If your 1930's Gibson L-OO, for example, measures 12-3/8" at the 12th fret, then your guitar's scale length is twice that—a 24-3/4" scale. For good intonation, the guitar's saddle will be placed so a little extra string length is added. This extra length is called "compensation," and it means the actual string length is longer than its 24-3/4" scale measurement. At the center of the saddle it will be closer to 24-7/8". Compensation varies for different strings, and that's why your saddle is placed at an angle.

Need help computing or laying out a fret scale? Our onlineFret Calculatorwill do the math as well as help you locate your bridge correctly.

HOW SCALE LENGTH AFFECTS TONE

Fender
One of the most common scale lengths is the Fender 25-1/2" guitar scale. Found on Stratocasters^®, Telecasters^®, and the huge variety of instruments inspired by them as well as the replacement, and custom parts available for them. 

The 25-1/2" produces a rich, strong, bell-like tone, and defined low-end. 

Gibson
The Gibson 24-3/4" scale is also very common, but it is also the most confusing of all scale lengths—this is because it rarely ever measures out to be 24-3/4 inches! This scale has gradually changed over the past fifty or so years due to changes in production equipment.
 
Being shorter than the Fender 25-1/2" scale, the Gibson 24-3/4" scale has a lower tension/easier to play feel, and a warmer tone.

PRS, Dobro, & National
When luthier Paul Reed Smith was developing his now highly desirable guitars, he was looking to capture the harmonic richness of the Fender electric's tone as well as the fullness, warmth, and playability of the Gibson electric guitars. PRS opted for a scale length of 25", which is also found on Dobro and National guitars. 

The bass strings on a 25" scale are fuller sounding than some 24-3/4" instruments, which can sometimes sound muddy. The treble strings are not only easier to bend than on a 25-1/2" scale, but also have a warmer, and fuller tone. 



Strat^®, Stratocaster^®, Tele^®, Telecaster^® are registered trademarks of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. Les Paul^® and Byrdland^® are trademarks of Gibson Guitar Corporation. 

Fitting a bolt on guitar neck tips.

Here are some notes and helpful tips on installing and setting up a bolt-on neck. Most necks will require minor truss rod adjustment after installation. Please read the entire document prior to installing the neck. 

Attaching the neck
Place the neck into the neck-pocket and check its fit. Ideally it should drop in, or be a little snug—you shouldn't have to force the neck into the pocket. If the body is unfinished and you are pre-assembling the instrument (highly recommended!), remember that the finish will make the neck pocket smaller—it will build up on the edge of the rout. Be sure to compensate for the finish buildup or the neck will be too tight after finishing. 

Next, locate and center the neck in the neck pocket/body. (Use a small clamp with thin wooden shims on the clamping surfaces to hold the neck in place during this process.) To double-check if the neck is centered on the body, take a long straightedge and place it along the edge of the neck. Be sure that a portion of the straightedge is over the body at the bridge's location. Compare the two sides of the neck, and where the straightedge hangs over the bridge (i.e. the straightedge may be even with the outside of the E-string saddles, the outer saddle height screws, the outer edges of the bridge plate, etc.). 

Drilling the neck bolt holes is one of the most critical operations in the construction of a bolt-on neck guitar. The holes must be properly sized and located so that the neck is secure in the pocket, insuring that the vibrations and resonance of the instrument are not compromised. 

Please noteThe two or three holes in the heel of our pre-finished necks are for manufacturing as well as holding the neck during the finishing process. They will not interfere with mounting holes or neck screws. 

If the body already has the neck holes, place the neck into the pocket (properly located and aligned with the bridge), and center punch or mark the locations to be drilled onto the neck. Insert the four neck bolts into their holes, and tap them with a hammer to mark their locations on the neck. 

If the body doesn't have the neck bolt holes drilled, use the neck plate to help locate them. The simplest way is to place the neck plate into the pocket and properly position it in the rout (refer to the drawing for the proper location). The measurement "A" is 5/8" for guitar, 1-5/16" for bass. 

After locating the plate, centerpunch your marks and drill the holes. Most body/neck mounting holes are 3/16" diameter, and they are slightly counter sunk on the backside of the body. We recommend using a drill press to maintain squareness and proper alignment. 

 

Next, you must drill the holes into the neck. After center punching the neck bolt locations, determine the proper size drill bit (most neck bolts use a 1/8" diameter bit) and chuck it into your drill. Place a neck bolt through the neck plate and body. Measure the amount of the neck bolt that extends up into the neck pocket, and mark your drill bit (a piece of masking tape around the bit works great) so that it will drill into the neck to that depth. 

Carefully drill the holes in the neck. Pull the bit out a few times while drilling each hole to clear the shavings packed onto the bit—when drilling maple or other dense hardwoods, drill the hole in gradual steps so the bit won't get too hot or clogged. 

Basic Guitar Setup

Basic Set-up Kit:18" Staightedge String Action Gauge Understring Radius Gauges Additional supplies:Truss rod wrench Lubricant (petroleum jelly) Stiff brush Sharpie marker Setting up a guitar involves working with the bridge, nut, and neck adjustments to dial in the playing action to suit the player.
First, sight the neck just to see what condition it's in. With the guitar on its side, look down the fingerboard edge for overall straightness, back-bow, relief (forward bow) and humps, as well as high or uneven frets. Check the nut to make sure the slots are not too deep, and the bridge saddles to make sure they fit and functioning properly. Compare the fretboard and bridge radii to make sure they match.		With the guitar on its side, look down the fingerboard edge to evaluate the neck's straightness, back-bow or relief.
Loosen the strings and the truss rod nut, so you can clean and lubricate the truss rod before making any adjustments. Always loosen the truss rod nut first, as it could already be maxed out. This prevents the possibility of shearing off the nut. Use a small brush to remove built-up debris, lacquer and polishing compound from the threads and the bearing surfaces of the nut and rod. Compressed air works well for removing dirt and fine particles. After cleaning, apply a very small amount of lubricant to the threads on the inside of the truss rod nut using care not to get any on the bare wood.
Without putting any tension on the rod, reinstall the nut until it is just snug and mark a line on it with a pen. This marks your starting point, and will be a good reference when adjusting a truss rod.		This mark will be a reference for when you start adjusting the truss rod.
With the guitar strung up to pitch and held in the playing position, use your straightedge to evaluate relief. Measuring in the playing position is important because of the effects of gravity: a guitar laying on its back will give different measurements than it does on its side (playing position). If the neck is in relief (bowed forward), tighten the nut until the straightedge lays as flat as possible on the frets. If the guitar is in a back bow, loosen the nut until the straightedge lies flat on the frets.
This process will likely reveal any loose or uneven frets. It's important to achieve a straight neck. This is the preferred setup for most players, and it's a necessary starting point for all setups. Some players, especially those who play with a heavy attack and like low action, will prefer to have some relief in the neck: this small amount of up-bow reduces buzzes and fret noise for these players. It's a matter of personal preference.
		Use the straightedge to evaluate relief.

Address any problem frets or nut and saddle issues before proceeding to the next step. When these are taken care of, you're ready to fine-tune your setup.

The idea is to have the bridge and saddle radii match, to have the neck straight (or with a small amount of relief if you prefer) and the action adjusted to a comfortable height for the player. Action and relief are very much a matter of player preference, so talking with the player will help you decide what approach to take.

Use the understring radius gauges to first determine the radius of the fretboard, then check the radius at the bridge to make sure they match.		Check the string radius. It should match the fretboard radius.
Use the setup suggestions included with the String Action Gauge as your starting point.Adjust the truss rod to add relief to the neck, if that's what the player prefers. Then, measuring with the String Action Gauge, adjust the string height to the player's preference. This may involve adjusting the height of the saddles or of the string slots in the nut.		Set the action using the String Action Gauge.

How To Cut a Guitar Nut

Ian Erlewine, of Stewart-MacDonald's R&D Team, walks you through one of the key skills in any repair shop.

By tapping the side of the old nut, you can dislodge it. Before you do, use a sharp blade to score a line on the finish around the nut. This way, the nut will break out of the finish on your scored lines, and chipping the finish will be kept to a minimum. Nuts tap out easily on old guitars, but not on new heavily-finished ones; sometimes you'll need to saw through the nut to get it out. To do this, cut it lengthwise (across the string slots), stopping when you're almost down to the bottom. Now you can collapse the nut inward on itself and remove the pieces.

Clean the nut slotScrape out old glue residue, and make the slot square and clean without removing wood. (Good tools for this are Micro Chisels and Nut Seating Files.)

Choose your nut material We like Bone Nut Blanks for most situations, except when used with a tremolo. Tremolos work well with slippery nut materials like Tusq and Black Tusq XL made by GraphTech. Carefully square up the blank to fit the nut slot by using sandpaper on a flat surface (use double-stick tape or self-adhesive sandpaper). Start with 120-150 grit, and work your way through 220 and 320-grit. Calipers are a big help in accurately sizing the nut.

Roughly shape the nutThe top of the nut will be shaped to follow the radius of the fretboard. As a starting point, place the blank in the slot and trace the shape of the fretboard onto it. To determine the height of the nut, add the height of the frets to this traced line, then add an additional .030" for string clearance (the space from the bottom of the strings to the top of the first fret). This will give you a good starting point; later you'll fine-tune string heights, bringing them down just a little. A Radius Gauge is a good template for drawing this curved line for top of the nut. File the nut to the shape you've drawn. Don't try to final-shape it yet — at this point, you want to leave yourself enough material to work with when you're fine-shaping later.

Lay out the spacing Determine the spacing you want between the outside E-strings. A good measurement is .050", or about 1/16", in from the top of the beveled ends of the first fret. Looking straight down on the top of the nut, use the String Spacing Ruleto find the proper spacing for the remaining four strings. Use a scribe or very sharp pencil to mark their locations.

Cut starter slots Now you're ready to cut small "starter" slots. Be careful not to cut too deep. The.010" Gauged Saw is excellent for starting slots. The Gauged Saws are best at "moving" the slots from side-to-side if they stray from your marks, but they do lower the slots fast. (Besides, you shouldn't rush this!)

What files do I need? Choose nut slotting files that are the same size or no more that a few thousands larger than your individual string gauges. A smaller file can also be rocked side-to-side to widen a slot to the desired size. For example, you can cut a .043" slot with a .042" file by moving it around a bit.

Remove the nut to protect the guitarTo avoid marring the guitar, consider shaping the slots with the nut blank held in the Nut and Saddle Vise. File down the excess nut material from the top as the slots get deeper, so there's room for your file to cut. Frequently check the slot locations with the String Spacing Rule, and move the slots from side to side if needed. When the slots are well defined, but not to final depth, put the nut back in the slot and string up.

Final slot height Take the slots to their final height with all the strings on and tuned to pitch. Double-edge Nut Files are good for this job. As you get close, use stacked feeler gauges as an accurate way to stop at the string height you're after. (Our frets in this example are .040" tall, so when we add .030" for string clearance we get a slot height of .070".) Stack the feeler gauges to this combined measurement, and file the slots until the file just nicks the feeler gauges. Now you've got a good general string height, and you're ready to fine-tune it if you like: leaving the heavier strings a bit high, while the treble strings get lowered, following the radius of the fretboard. Many pro players prefer to set the low-E string clearance to about .020", and the treble E-string at .010" (give or take a few thousandths). The strings between are at graduated heights following the fretboard radius.

Mark the final size Mark all around the overhanging nut edges with a scribe or knife, then put it back in the vise to trim off the excess nut material. Work carefully up to your scribed lines with the smooth side of the Nut Shaping File. Take your time — it's easy to "blow a nut" at this stage!

Final shaping Final-sand and contour the nut's shape using ever-finer sandpaper (220-, 320-, 400-, and all the way up to 1200 if you wish). Follow this fine-sanding by polishing with a soft rag and polishing compound.

String it up! String the guitar to pitch, and final-check the nut shape and string heights with aString Action Gauge. If you're happy, loosen the strings and glue the nut in lightly with 2 or 3 small drops of Titebond glue. Replace the strings quickly, tune back to pitch, and slide the nut from side-to-side to align it while the glue is wet and slippery. Leave the strings on, to provide clamping pressure. After the glue dries for an hour, you're ready to play.

New Projects Underway!

Work has started on 2 custom projects. One is a an arched top Telecaster for a special customer - pics to follow soon! The other is a Jazzmaster/Tele Hybrid prototype with vintage style humbuckers - Pics and more info soon!

http://www.relicguitars.co.uk/

Sponsors:
http://www.kliqmedia.co.uk
http://www.kliqweddings.co.uk

New Gibson 1959 J-200 Renovation Project!

A customer recetnly bought in a 1959 Gibson J-200 in very poor condition. The top had been painted red at some piont in it's life and then been stripped. The Top was in a very poor state of repair but the rest of the guitar was in an ok condition. With a bit of tender loving care and some coats of Nitro laquer the guitar has come up beautifully! Pics to come soon!

from http://www.relicguitars.co.uk/

Welcome

Relic Aged Custom Guitars and Parts

Welcome to Ammon Guitars! Ammon Guitars was set up to provide the discerning guitar player with a 1950's/1960's guitar playing experience without having to pay vintage or custom shop prices.

So 'relicing' then....that's just attacking a guitar with a screwdriver.

No! All of our guitars and parts are aged or reliced with care and skill to simulate years of natural playing wear. We believe that our guitars would stand up to close scrutiny to the big USA custom shops. While we can't give you a real 1950's maple necked beauty...we can get you as close as possible!

Ok..So what makes your guitars better from all the other 'relicers' aged guitars out there?

Apart from the reasons above our guitars have the following features:

* We use quality tone woods - Swamp Ash and Alder.

* Our bodies and necks are accurately based on the originals dimensions and shapes .

* We use quality top of the range hardware and pickups based on period specs.

* All our guitars, bodies and necks are finished with 100% Nitro-Cellulose Lacquer in period correct colours.

* Our guitars are set up and tested to the highest standard before shipping.

* We are happy for guitarists to play demo our guitars before they purchase their own instrument. All our guitars come with a 1 year warranty on parts and electrics and come with a signed certificate of authenticity. Quality Tweed cases are available for £70 extra.

All guitars now come in two price ranges: Performer and Pro.

  

We now sell Replacement Bodies with our 3 choices of relic finish for T-type and S-Type guitars featuring 100% nitro finishes! We also offer a repair and restoration service for all makes of guitars- email for details. We have had a few enquiries lately about about relicing peoples own guitars. We will do this but only to guitars that are finished with nitro lacquer already. We have recently lightly aged a Gibson '61 reissue SG. Click here for pics. We also can do Guitar Amp Repairs and Rewiring! Please email for details and prices!

Our new amp range has arrived! Hardwired by a Valve and Circuit Engineer with over 60 Years experience! These amps have to be heard to be believed. For a limited time we are also fitting our amps with some original NOS components! We currently have a number of amps available split into 2 Series(Click for more info):Californian Series and the London Series.