Help Needed On A Mando-guitar Scale Thing

[gitCAD]

hi

I had this plan for a while and it came up again yesterday. I remember, the last time I "gave it up" was when I heard or read something about stringbusting or something alike.

Back to the idea , I 've been bending my brain over a number of non-understandings - may be someone can help me clear that up

ideally, I would like to have the octave to the regular guitar tuning so that I can play my guitar chords as usual with a high twelvestring sound - like a capo in the 12th

How do I do that, how do I get an exact octave while using regular gauge strings, meaning, getting the higher octave just from the actual scale ?

Do I get that from just deviding my regular scale by 2 and then calculating the frets ?

Has anyone built a mando guitar ?

Normally for a twelve string (electric) I'd like an acoustic like wide neck or round like a 50s Gibson - but how about when the actual frets are so much more tiny - what do you recommend on thickness of the neck and what trussrod can be used ?

If there will be any reaction, may be I will have more questions, but until then ....

thanks

[Mickguard]

How do I do that, how do I get an exact octave while using regular gauge strings, meaning, getting the higher octave just from the actual scale ?

←

Are you talking about the Danelectro Guitarlin, or is there another kind of guitar/mandolin?

It looks to me like the Guitarlin is just a normal scale neck--if you look at where the bridge is placed, it corresponds to normal scale. All they did was extend the neck/cut away the body and add more frets...not sure how to calculate those though.

[selmac]

let me get this straight. what you want is a mando guitar. one neck guitar but an octave higher at regular guitar scale and 12 string? and the other neck is a regular 8 string mandolin neck? mandolin necks do not always have truss rods. you can buy a mandolin truss rod from stew mac or build one buy taking a steel rod threading one end and bending the other down as an achor. standardish mandolin scale is 13". not sure what else your getting at though

[gitCAD]

let me get this straight. what you want is a mando guitar. one neck guitar but an octave higher at regular guitar scale and 12 string?

hello

almost

I want to use a body project that I have here and that was once a twelve string and build a new neck for it with a "mando guitar type " scale (adjusting it) so that the basic tune is an octave higher to a regular. ( less transposing)

However, the more I think about it, the more I would think that it probably only wants a tune up as if the capo was in the 5th ot 7th.

But then I am unaware of what it will have to tune to , how the strings will behave to that particular tuning tension.

I calculated a 19 3/4 scale that would look kind of ok, but I have no idea how to calculate what tune that would be or anything of what to do with the strings other then may be tuning it by ear and feel ( tension of strings) and have the tuner tell me later what tune that is trial and error

I would like to know how to calculate a scale it to either the octave , or the 5th / 7th fret relation in hope, that it is not only possible from half the regular scale, because that would make frets too tiny

The guitar that I knew, was the VOX - see pic

[Mickguard]

let me get this straight. what you want is a mando guitar. one neck guitar but an octave higher at regular guitar scale and 12 string?

hello

almost

I want to use a body project that I have here and that was once a twelve string and build a new neck for it with a "mando guitar type " scale (adjusting it) so that the basic tune is an octave higher to a regular. ( less transposing)

However, the more I think about it, the more I would think that it probably only wants a tune up as if the capo was in the 5th ot 7th.

But then I am unaware of what it will have to tune to , how the strings will behave to that particular tuning tension.

I calculated a 19 3/4 scale that would look kind of ok, but I have no idea how to calculate what tune that would be or anything of what to do with the strings other then may be tuning it by ear and feel ( tension of strings) and have the tuner tell me later what tune that is trial and error

I would like to know how to calculate a scale it to either the octave , or the 5th / 7th fret relation in hope, that it is not only possible from half the regular scale, because that would make frets too tiny

The guitar that I knew, was the VOX - see pic

←

Ah, you should have posted the pic in the first place. Here's check this out:

Another Mando Guitar

Why would the scale be different from a regular mandolin?

[gitCAD]

Ah, you should have posted the pic in the first place. Here's check this out:

Why would the scale be different from a regular mandolin?

I do not know what the regular scale is and I was wondering how it tunes and how to calculate upon how it tunes - that were my initial questions

-->> How can I calculate the scale to a certain tune - how does it relate - how will regular string-gauges relate to that and what is the regular scale of a mando

[Dugz Ink]

Check out this web page:

Various Scale Lengths (compiled by Warren Allen)

[selmac]

thats just a tweleve string solidbody mandolin isn't it? just find mandolin strings and buy them but buy 2 packs thats what I'd do either that or find and buy sets of 12 string mandolin strings. mandolin scale length is 13". just tune it to EEAADDGGBBEE like a twelve string but an octave higher. I belive gibson makes a six string mando guitar thats 13" scale but I don't know what they use for strings

[sirkentesquire]

I'm in the process of making a double neck guitar/six-string mandolin and all this scale length business is relative. If you look at a mandolin whose scale length is usually 13 7/8", if I'm not mistaken, the tension on the strings and neck is intense. No, you more than likely couldn't use regular gauge guitar strings without some of them snapping to pieces, even at the shorter scale. The wounds strings would be the ones most affected. The general scale length for most fretted instruments is mostly based on string tension, finding the place of optimum playability. Not to say sound isn't crucial, but people just decided certain scales were easier for certain tunings and instruments than others.

And just to make clear, even if YOU know this, the scale length does not change how it's tuned, only you do that, you just have to know what variables to use to get the greatest playability for the tuning you want with this thing, as well as how far you can take a string before it blows apart. You're idea is TOTALLY doable!

IF I understand you correctly, you want a guitar just tuned an octave up. It's not too complicated once you work it out. Personally I think the mandolin scale length is a bit too short for playability. I would shoot for between 15" and 16", probably go for 15" if you don't want that extra bit of tension, but you can't really know until you're finished. 16" felt good to me, but I'm going to make my new one 15 1/2", just to make it a perfect 10" less than the 25 1/2" guitar scale length.

As far as the neck goes, I would make sure it's just as thick as a guitar neck and that it has a good truss rod in it. LMI sells a two-way for mandolins that I'm going to try out, though it is meant for 13 7/8" scale. Find some good dimensions you like and just make the neck a little narrower at the nut and the last fret by the same amount, maybe 1/8" or whatever.

I'm still trying to sort out what string gauges will work best, but strings are cheap, so you can just keep trying different combos until you find a set that works the best. And you can just use a normal guitar bridge, as even though at the bridge it will be the same width as a guitar, the short scale will mean that it will narrow much sooner, if that's what you want the strings to do.

I hope I sort of understood what you are shooting for here. If not, I apologize for not reading closely enough and you can feel free to disregard most of this. Either way, good luck!

Edited March 13, 2005 by sirkentesquire