Re: Question about bridge placement
Originally Posted by
Chuck D
... it will ask for the scale length and you might have to guess since your bridge has been moved. Chances are your scale length is 13 7/8.
The term "scale length" always used to confuse me, considering that compensation at the bridge cause no two pairs of strings to be EXACTLY the same length. Heck, on a guitar the saddle is angled off by maybe 1/4 inch at the ends, so how can Martin (just as an example) claim a 25.4" sale length?
But apparently, the technically proper definition of "scale length" totally ignores the position of the bridge & saddle:
- "Scale length" is, simply, twice the distance from the nut to the 12th fret.
That allows the placement of the bridge (saddle) to vary as needed based on the player's preferred string height and string gauge.
To the OP: The distance from the 12th fret to the bridge (saddle) has to be slightly MORE than the distance from the 12th fret to the nut because the simple act of fretting (at 12 or elsewhere) stretches the string, thus raising its pitch slightly from what you'd expect based on length alone. How much each string must be lengthened is called "compensation", and THAT topic could fill a whole book. But I suspect that the Frets.com website addresses it fairly well.
- Ed
"Then one day we weren't as young as before
Our mistakes weren't quite so easy to undo
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I'm a better man for just the knowin' of you."
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