Scale Length

[greentea]

Hi all,

I'm making an aggressive Jem style guitar for wood class (bolt on, double locking trem, all maple T-T) and have already purchased the neck. I'm borrowing a friends book (Build your own electric guitar by martin oakham) but i have very few classes to finish the body blank and hand it in. It's easily enough time to rout all of the cavities but I need to figure out whats wrong with my plans before I can finish it.

I've measured the scale length from the leading edge of the nut to where the saddle should be on an OFR (double of length from leading edge to 12th fret > 25.5 inches). It looks about right until i measure for the pickups and theres only about 4 3/4 inches of room between the trem cavity and the end of the fretboard, when there should be closer to 6. Theres not much room between the pickups and im wondering if this is purely cosmetic, or if it will affect my tone. I'd like to fix it however as its not very pleasing to the eye. If anyone could explain what i'm doing wrong thatd be great

Thanks!

[doug]

If you have a 24 fret 25.5" scale neck it's going to be about 19-3/8" from nut to end of fingerboard. Then you'll have some routed out space in front of the bridge. The studs are like (forgive me it's been a while) 3/8" - 1/2" in front of the high E saddle. All this combined reduces the gap between the end of the fingerboard and your trem cavity.

As long as your E saddle lands where it is supposed to related to the nut, then whatever space you have left in between is what it is.

-Doug

[RAI6]

What is the scale length of the neck you have....?

[greentea]

scale length of the neck i bought is 25.5 inches

I took a ruler and measured down the neck, with the end starting at the leading edge of the nut, and this is what i came up with

with the mounting rings on thered be less than an inch of room inbetween the pickups =S

Intonations all i need to worry about, but i'm wondering why other guitars that have similar scale lengths, fret numbers and double locking bridges have much more space between the pickups? It makes me wonder if i'm doing something wrong with the plans

[Mattia]

Go to http://www.stewmac.com/fretcalc and type in the figures, and will give you the correct stud locations for a Gotoh Floyd, which is the same as an OFR in terms of spacing and installation. In terms of space: butt the neck pickup as close to the end of the neck as possible.

Edited May 8, 2008 by Mattia

[jmrentis]

I think Mattia is right, push the neck pickup closer to the neck as the ring is very thin right there. Also, it seems as though you have nearly a full fret after the 24th fret when including the binding, so that whole area shortens your pup space even further. If you measure from just after the 24th fret to the bridge post you have close to what you'd expect. J

[greentea]

Thanks for the help

it's looking a lot better than i thought it would and it looks like i'll be able to finish before the school years over

thanks all