Ludo@Home Posted July 22, 2004 Report Share Posted July 22, 2004 Hi - I'm about to start working on my first guitar, and I've been wondering about the positioning of frets. When you press a string down to a fret the tension in the string is increasing a very little bit so that essentially, it it detuned a bit. I've no idea how much this is, I've no idea if this is a real of a theoretical problem. Anyway, I guess it should be "worst" at the first fret. Now, while calculating the correct fret positions, would you take the mathematically correct positions or should one introduce a compensation for that ? Ludo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuitarMaestro Posted July 22, 2004 Report Share Posted July 22, 2004 You are right about the detuning. The frets are placed at the mathematically correct position. To compensate for the detuning the bridge gets adjusted so that the length from nut to bridge is usually a little longer the the theoretical scale length. If you are unsure about your calculations then double check with this fretcalculator. I used that one with great success.... HTH, Marcel! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhoads56 Posted July 22, 2004 Report Share Posted July 22, 2004 You can compensate for this by reducing the distance from the first fret to the nut. The lower the action, the less effect fretting a note has. The longer the string length, behind the saddles and the nut, the less effect it has. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hotrock Posted July 22, 2004 Report Share Posted July 22, 2004 Don't some Gibsons have a zero fret near to the nut, I thought that's what it was for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minideluxe Posted July 22, 2004 Report Share Posted July 22, 2004 You can compensate for this by reducing the distance from the first fret to the nut. By how much??, and I thought increasing the tension would raise the pitch not detune it Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krazyderek Posted July 23, 2004 Report Share Posted July 23, 2004 by 2.2 percent of the distance, and it does help i do this on all my necks, it makes a noticable difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhoads56 Posted July 23, 2004 Report Share Posted July 23, 2004 I thought increasing the tension would raise the pitch not detune it Of course it raises the pitch, who said thats not the case?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krizalid Posted July 23, 2004 Report Share Posted July 23, 2004 just a question. these are the fret distance and from what i can see, it has the 0.5, 0.9. etc... can i make the numbers all even? say, 36.5 to 37, 70.9 to 71. can it be done? Fret Dist from Nut 1 36.5 2 70.9 3 103.4 4 134.1 5 163.1 6 190.4 7 216.2 8 240.5 9 263.5 10 285.2 11 305.7 12 325.0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeithHowell Posted July 23, 2004 Report Share Posted July 23, 2004 can i make the numbers all even? say, 36.5 to 37, 70.9 to 71. can it be done? I presume you mean round UP to the nearest integer? I wouldn't do that as you will introduce a systematic error into your fret distances. Working to a tenth of a millimeter is fine. I put a vernier on my fret jig which makes it even easier Keith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hotrock Posted July 23, 2004 Report Share Posted July 23, 2004 by 2.2 percent of the distance, and it does help i do this on all my necks, it makes a noticable difference. Is this for the first fret only or do the rest shift up too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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