bugi Posted June 10, 2009 Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 Hi, I just made first fretboard in my life - I used maple blank and template made with WFret software for 25.5 inch scale. Glued it to the maple blank and started to cut the fret slots using my £5 jig (flat piece of wood with L brackets to hold the saw). I still need to work to get the frets more consistent in terms of depth, but this is not an issue ... So, the issue is : As I mentioned, that supposed to be 25.5 scale. I have measured the distance from the nut to 12 fret and it's 324mm - the distance from fret to 24 fret is 486mm - hurray I thought - I've checked the WFret again, Stewmac website, yeah, well done me! Anyway, I took the fretboard home and compared it with my LTD H307 and Ibanez 7620 - and there's no match whatsoever! I thought the ibanez is 25.5 scale, but when I put new fretboard on the guitar, it doesn't match... Any clue what's going on? Thanks. Bugi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fridge Posted June 10, 2009 Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 hello Bugi. From the sounds of it your ibanez has a diffrent scale than what you originaly thought(wich seems unlikly). is the ibanez a 24 fret as well? My only sugestion is triple check all the measurments on Wfrett and Stew-Mac and your fretboard. This may help: http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/neck.htm the measurments for a 25.5" are about 3/4 down the page in metric and imperial. good luck on your project id hate to see a good peice of maple go to waste. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bugi Posted June 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 Hi, Yeah, I double checked everything ... One more idea has crossed my head - I need to check another ruler! - I know it seems to be daft, I don't think that will make a difference, but I need to find out what's going on before working on proper wood (i used the worst maple blank I had, as I was sure something will go wrong ). Anyway, I'll post some answers if I manage to solve this puzzle (and post some pics from building as well ). Cheers, Raf hello Bugi. From the sounds of it your ibanez has a diffrent scale than what you originaly thought(wich seems unlikly). is the ibanez a 24 fret as well? My only sugestion is triple check all the measurments on Wfrett and Stew-Mac and your fretboard. This may help: http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/neck.htm the measurments for a 25.5" are about 3/4 down the page in metric and imperial. good luck on your project id hate to see a good peice of maple go to waste. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VesQ Posted June 10, 2009 Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 Did you check the actual print you used as a template ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razbo Posted June 10, 2009 Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 I can only speak for the 24 3/4 scale pre-slotted board I got from from Stew Mac, but it was not actually 24 3/4. I thought maybe it was either a compensated 24 3/4 or maybe 24 9/16, but when I queried StewMac about bridge placement, they said go with actual physical scale of the fretboard, which I did. (Guitar is not completed, so can't say how that's worked out, yet.) This suggests that whatever it worked out to vs. other guitars, go with the physical object you have created there and base bridge placement on that. Maybe your software is working out some kind of compensation which leaves it a little different from other (theoretically) same scales? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikbojerik Posted June 10, 2009 Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 Another possibility is that you are counting a nut slot as the first fret - there should be 25 slots for a 24-fret board unless you are putting the nut at the end of the board. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bugi Posted June 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 No, No - I have printed the scale from WFret - here are the measurements given from WFret (in mm from the nut): 1: 36.35 2: 70.66 3: 103.05 4: 133.62 5: 162.47 6: 189.71 7: 215.41 8: 239.67 9: 262.58 10: 284.19 11: 304.59 12: 323.85 13: 342.03 14: 359.18 15: 375.38 16: 390.66 17: 405.09 18: 418.70 19: 431.56 20: 443.69 21: 455.14 22: 465.95 23: 476.15 24: 485.78 All these measurements are marked as lines, when I was cutting the slots, I have aligned my saw with the line as accurately as I could... I also cut the nut position (so fret 0), also calculated and marked by WFret - and when I have checked the distance from the nut to 12 fret, I got 324mm , from nut to 24 I've got 486mm - i've used big long ruler, I couldn't read it accurately to 2 decimal place - but it looks like according to calculations I did the fretboard ok... I will measure the fretboard in my Ibanez tonight, - if the fretboard I've cut is 25.5, there's no way ibanez has 25.5 scale - it would have to be something like 25, or even 24.75 - but as far I know 7620 model should have 25.5 scale -(no alterations have been made to the guitar), that's why I was so surprised... R Another possibility is that you are counting a nut slot as the first fret - there should be 25 slots for a 24-fret board unless you are putting the nut at the end of the board. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WezV Posted June 10, 2009 Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 I can only speak for the 24 3/4 scale pre-slotted board I got from from Stew Mac, but it was not actually 24 3/4. I thought maybe it was either a compensated 24 3/4 or maybe 24 9/16, but when I queried StewMac about bridge placement, they said go with actual physical scale of the fretboard, which I did. (Guitar is not completed, so can't say how that's worked out, yet.) This suggests that whatever it worked out to vs. other guitars, go with the physical object you have created there and base bridge placement on that. Maybe your software is working out some kind of compensation which leaves it a little different from other (theoretically) same scales? that is quite common on 24 3/4" scale lengths as gibson used many variations on it over the years its not something that should be a problem on a 25.5" scale just check everything thoroughly. measure the guitars, the paper template, the slotted board . comapre the template to the slotted board and the guitars - you will find where you have gone wrong Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ihocky2 Posted June 10, 2009 Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 measure your Ibanez. That is the easiest way to find what happening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bugi Posted June 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 Hi, Measured everything and... looks like I didn't pay enough attention when I started slotting - I started from the end, meaning 24th fret, and was moving down towards the nut... the result - frets 1-12 are perfect, from approx 13-15 onwards, one side of the fretboard is ok, second side (bass side) is slighlty fanned - so when I have measured the frets on the treble side, I thought everything is ok - but when I measured the whole thing properly, it shows imperfections ... To be honest, I don't know if my jig provides enough accuracy as it is based on eye measurements Anyway, first 12 slots looks fine, so I think it could be done, patience is the key! Measured Ibanez, hats off people, it is 25.5 !!! Again, I was rushing to compare the real guitar with my slotted fretboard and I didn't measure it properly - but tonight I have spent 2 hours trying to figure out what happened, and how to avoid mistakes in the future ... Here are some pics from the build - it shows the body shape, blank wood I want to use for this build - all these woods are B quality, as it's first build and I'm hoping to learn how to do it properly - then I took the proper blanks that are waiting quietly in my wardrobe http://picasaweb.google.com/pararampampam/...KzNmMaOnvj7uwE# Thanks for all help guys, next time I'll try to measure everything 1000000 times before I put something in the forum, to save your time (that you could spend building guitars rather than answering my stupid questions ). Keep Rockin' Bugi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fridge Posted June 11, 2009 Report Share Posted June 11, 2009 No problem dude and good luck with your project. will be looking forward to pics of the build Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geo Posted June 11, 2009 Report Share Posted June 11, 2009 (edited) It looks like you're on the right track. I would add some kind of perpendicular stop to your miter setup. Then you won't have to worry about inaccurately cut slots as long as you plane one edge of the fretboard completely straight before starting (and use that straight side to establish the centerline of the FB). This means cutting the slots before you taper the board. There are many ways to make a fretboard--that's just my suggestion. Edited June 11, 2009 by Geo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razbo Posted June 12, 2009 Report Share Posted June 12, 2009 (edited) I'm surprised you did not put a guide on the jig, but hats off to to your bravery! Cutting the slots was the one thing I did not trust myself on for the first build, so I got mine pre-slotted. I think on my next one I will still be too chicken and buy the StewMac set up so I can at elast say I cut them myself. Edited June 12, 2009 by Razbo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bugi Posted June 12, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 12, 2009 Bravery or stupidity ... call it what you will Anyway, I thought I'd just try to do it - there is too many people around saying - no, this can't be done manually, you can't do this without that tool etc ... I've already seen two luthiers working with some simple tools only, without complete Stewmac shop setup, and they're fine - more over, they both produce high quality instruments. I'm rather do couple of mistakes and learn how to do it, than buy 100000 tools and blame them for the final result - I'm not trying to cut the corners everywhere, but let's be honest - did luthiers use Stewmac slotting jig 20 years ago? Did they use CNC's ? Lesson learned, I know now where to pay more attention, I know how tu improve my £5 jig to get more precise and more repeatable results... I still have another couple of blanks that can be ruined, eventually I'll know how to do this properly At the end of the day, this will be my guitar, I'm not trying to open another guitar factory, no worries I have already learned next lesson - the more dense and hard wood is, the more useable it is for fretboard binding :D Some day, I will finish that guitar (fingers crossed) Bugi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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