Saber Posted November 24, 2003 Report Share Posted November 24, 2003 If you have a fretboard with a compound radius of 10" at the nut and 16" at the heal (such as the Warmoth neck for example), since the radius is increasing as you're going toward the bridge, won't the radius be be even greater than 16" at the bridge? Won't you need a bridge with a radius of around 19-20"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted November 24, 2003 Report Share Posted November 24, 2003 If your talking about a Stratocastor in general, think about most of the floating bridges on them. The saddles have 2 adjustable screws which enable you to raise and lower each string individually so you can do almost any radius with them. It gets harder when you start using necks like that using a Floyd Rose system, then you may have to shim each saddle according to the needs of the guitar set up. I'm not positve about the majority of Tunematic bridges, but I would think most can be adjusted depending on the saddles they have installed. The way I see it, the majority of available bridges out there are ready to handle different radius's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krazyderek Posted November 24, 2003 Report Share Posted November 24, 2003 hmm.... got me stumped... makes sense though... but... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveq Posted November 24, 2003 Report Share Posted November 24, 2003 Yes. The shape of the strings will be conical. I don't think the radius is as high as 19" but I'm not sure. I set the bridge radius so that the strings fit the upper frets optimally. I don't actually set the bridge to a particular radius though - so I never actually measured what it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Rosenberger Posted November 24, 2003 Report Share Posted November 24, 2003 On a Tune O Matic, you file the saddle slots to the correct radius Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johntbyrne Posted November 25, 2003 Report Share Posted November 25, 2003 Just for laughs I jumped into AutoCad (easier than math in this case) and found size for radius of bridge as asked. Assume, 25 1/2" scale, 10" at nut, and 16" at 18.75" from nut this results in about 18.16" radius at bridge. Of course since the bridge for each string is at a different distance from nut this isn't really a true number but gives you an idea, again just for laughs. Cheers John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johntbyrne Posted November 25, 2003 Report Share Posted November 25, 2003 Oh btw, having a large radius at the bridge would be a good thing I think since it allows the bridge to be set "flatter". Thing I wonder about is how you could set the bridge for one of those high radius necks like 9" jobs. Funny how you never think/notice these things till you start to understand and build them LOL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saber Posted November 25, 2003 Author Report Share Posted November 25, 2003 Oh btw, having a large radius at the bridge would be a good thing I think since it allows the bridge to be set "flatter". So that might be good for alternate picking since you wouldn't have to "jump as high" when you skip over a string since they're less arched. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saber Posted November 25, 2003 Author Report Share Posted November 25, 2003 Assume, 25 1/2" scale, 10" at nut, and 16" at 18.75" from nut this results in about 18.16" radius at bridge. What if the radius was 10" at the nut and totally flat at the 22nd fret. Then the bridge would need an "inverse radius" (just for laughs?) I wonder how that would play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devon Headen Posted November 25, 2003 Report Share Posted November 25, 2003 Assume, 25 1/2" scale, 10" at nut, and 16" at 18.75" from nut this results in about 18.16" radius at bridge. What if the radius was 10" at the nut and totally flat at the 22nd fret. Then the bridge would need an "inverse radius" (just for laughs?) I wonder how that would play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johntbyrne Posted November 25, 2003 Report Share Posted November 25, 2003 Darn engineer in me .... -3.6" radius at bridge. Not stop making me laugh. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saber Posted November 25, 2003 Author Report Share Posted November 25, 2003 OK. I have one last interesting problem for you John. What radius would you have at the 22nd fret if you have a 10" radius at the nut and perfectly flat at the bridge? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krazyderek Posted November 25, 2003 Report Share Posted November 25, 2003 my money's on 15" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johntbyrne Posted November 26, 2003 Report Share Posted November 26, 2003 errr, that one is difficult. Problem is flat mean infinite radius and this doesn't work in a graphical solution. I'm at work and don't have time to figure this out for real but I did a check with very large radius nuts (4000 and 8000 inch). I got two drastically different answers for 22nd fret but both were in the thousands of inches. I think its safe to say you still almost flat at the 22nd fret. Let me think about this one some more. Problem is going to be that the shape of the fretboard has a drastic impact on answer I think but still I think we are going to see that we are basically still flat. I'll think about it and get back to ya. I can tell you that the closests guess we had was 15" (grin). I didn't guess. Cheers John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johntbyrne Posted November 28, 2003 Report Share Posted November 28, 2003 After having more than 2 minutes to think about it (at work) this wasn't difficult at all. Here goes 25 1/2" scale, 10" radius nut, flat bridge. Using nut sting spread 1 3/8" and bridge strin spread of 2 3/32" you need .... drum roll ... right at 26.3" radius at 22nd fret to get flat at bridge. Sorry for wrong first answer. What I get for not thinking a problem through enough. Cheers John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krazyderek Posted November 28, 2003 Report Share Posted November 28, 2003 lol do i get a runner up prize for being on the show? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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