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Scale length is odd...


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When I routed my neck pocket, I accidently made it too big on all three sides (depth was perfect though).

Now I have my neck (just needs truss rud and carving) and when I put the fretboard into position, and the neck, and line up the pickguard and everything, the length from the nut to the saddles ends up being around 25 3/4. I put some wood as spacing in the neck pocket but it is still off a little bit (I want a 25.5 in scale length)

Now, will having it be a little more than 25.5 totally screw up everything? I don't want to move the neck in the pocket up too far or else my neck pickup will be in a strange place due to the Tele's pickguard.

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If you already routed your neck pocket too big on three sides, why can't you move the neck 1/4" closer to the bridge? Are you using a pre-existing body and pickguard?

Usually you mount the neck and position the bridge first, and then worry about little details like pickguard fit. Having the bridge in the right place relative to the neck is a little more critical than the pickguard's position. It's easier to nibble a little plastic off a pickguard than it is to keep modifiying your neck pocket.

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The gap is in the neck pocket maybe?

If this is my body:

X- Bridge P- Pickguard [ Neck pocket

XP[

Once I put the neck into the pocket... my scale length is off. If I move the neck towards the headstock, it goes off again because I have to move the pickguard ot fit flush with everything. If I move the bridge back, it only increases the scale length.

There has to be something I'm missing.

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OK! I may have solved it.

I took everything off and positioned my pickguard flush with the neck pocket (or as close as possible) Then I put in my neck. To keep the control plate on the body I had to put a little bit of wood in the neck pocket. Next I put the bridge flush against the pickguard. All that was left was he fretboard, which I moved towards the body to get the proper scale length.

You see, I ordered my fretboard preslotted with 24 frets and being the forgetful person that I am, I misplaced the fretboard (not lost), So what I though was the 22nd fret was actually the 23rd. All I had to do was move the fretboard a little and now it seems fine (except for an odd looking headstock with I can easily fix later- just before I finish it.

If anyone sees any flaws: PLEASE point them out! This board has been my best resource so far.

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if you're only off by 1/4" using a 24 fret neck you're luck, the pickguard on a tele (as with the rest of the guitar) is designed for 22 frets. It doesn't matter how many frets you have, 12, 22, 24, 36 or whatever, when it's a 25.5" scale length you ONLY have 25.5" between the nut and bridge. The only available space is that between the end of the fretboard and the bridge. That being the case I don't know why your headstock will look funny, the fretboard STILL has to be glued in the right place which means that regardless of 22 or 24 frets, 1 through 22 will still need to be in the exact same place on the actual neck.

If the neck heel is built as a 24 fret neck, in order to make it work you will need to remove that extra 1/4" from the heel of the neck, or the neck pocket on the guitar body. If you are set on using a 24 fret neck you are simply going to have to move the neck pickup or the bridge and cut into your pickguard, it's as simple as that.

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I am only using 22 frets... I am beginning to wonder if StewMac sent me the wrong fretboard. I ordered 1062, "Fender 25 1/2" scale for guitar" and it says Fret slots: 22+nut slot

However the fretboard I have, although it says 1062 on it, has 24 frets. Is there any reason why I can't cut off the bottom two frets, as I planned to do?

Oh and what I did, is I moved the fretboard back with the nut... so the scale length is shotrter and the 22nd fret is the last fret on the neck

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