Strange question about scale length and number of frets.

#21
Bruce Johnson said:
Here, I'll do the math for you:

On your Option 1 guitar 25.5" scale, 22 fret, the end of the fingerboard is at the 23rd fret position. Therefore the distance from the bridge Zero line to the front side of the neck pickup is 25.5-18.746=6.754".

On your Option 2 guitar 25.5" scale, 24 fret, the end of the fingerboard is at the 25th fret position. Therefore the distance from the bridge Zero line to the front side of the neck pickup is 25.5-19.483=6.017".

So, those are the fixed functional lengths of those two bodies, assuming that you are keeping them unchanged. Yes, the 24 fret body is shorter in length, so on any custom neck you build for it, the fingerboard will be longer.

Now, if you build custom 24" scale necks to fit those bodies, keeping the bridge and neck pocket positions the same, you'll get:

On the Option 1 22 fret body, the fingerboard will be 24.0"-6.754"=17.246". On a 24" scale neck, the 22nd fret is at 17.265", so your heel end would be just shy of that. Therefore, that neck would have 21 frets.

On the Option 2 24 fret body, the fingerboard will be 24.0"-6.017"=17.983". That's just shy of the 24th fret position (18.000"), so that would end up as a 23 fret neck.

Do you see how that works?

If you play around with scale lengths in the range of 23" to 25", you'll get approximately the same result on both instruments: You'll lose one fret as compared to the 25.5" scale neck.
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Yes, thanks for explaining this. Keith has been working on a custom medium scale neck for me, and from what I've seen in pictures he's done a spectacular job. Thanks for all your help and advice.
 
#22
I have a bass (half fretless) with the equivalent of 30 frets, it has Bb (6 frets above) the second G (24th fret) octave.
Don't feel restricted by someones traditional, or supposed rules, when doing custom.
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#23
Duanestuermer said:
I have a bass (half fretless) with the equivalent of 30 frets, it has Bb (6 frets above) the second G (24th fret) octave.
Don't feel restricted by someones traditional, or supposed rules, when doing custom.
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It's not about rules or tradition, it's a simple matter of where things are physically - unless the new scale is longer or the neck pickup is removed, (or the bridge is moved which probably means removing the bridge pickup) there's no place for more frets on the OP's guitars, and shortening the scale will make for less frets.

Personally, 4-6 would probably be plenty and 12 is about as far as I can even imagine actually using, but I'm not the OP nor you, and the guitar/mandolin range is not what I play bass for. YMMV. I literally have no use for half the frets on my electric, and I'm not at all fond of getting down over the body on the upright, either.
 
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#25
If you mean my bass, it was made by a luthier in Milwaukee named Bob Pascoe in the early 80s(no idea where he is, or even "if" he still is now)
Mostly solid, spruce top, maple neck, ebony fingerborad5 string, fretted to the E on the G string, fretless on up.
I played it as my only bass for about 30 years on everything from rock, to fusion, to pop.
Here are a couple of diverse recordings of it.
Sweetbottom ‎– Do Some Damage (Rock/Prog)[URL='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU9dTpgDzms']
Riding the tide by Oceans ( Mermaid Fantasy Edition ) Jazz Musician Warren Wiegratz on Saxaphone [/URL]
She's Good For Me / Welcome To My Island CD
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#27
Duanestuermer said:
I have a bass (half fretless) with the equivalent of 30 frets, it has Bb (6 frets above) the second G (24th fret) octave.
Don't feel restricted by someones traditional, or supposed rules, when doing custom.
View attachment 2909974
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What's going on with the pickups? Was it routed for the largest P pup in the world? Now it looks like it has two jazz pickups kitty corner. Splain, please...
 
#29
Yes at first it was routed for a P bass PU (my previous and first bass was a preCBS P), and for reasons 20 or 30 years ago (that I don't remember any more) put the slanted EMG J type PU in, to replace the P. We did lot of experimenting back then, before realizing is was mostly just a bunch of wanking off.
 
#30
Matt Liebenau said:
Ok. Had to go in the basement and actually measure this. So, if you keep the bridge in the same spot, on a 25.5” neck if you measure from the bridge, 24” hits just on the bridge side of the first fret so you will loose about one to one and a half frets. If you are starting with 24 you should be able to get 22 frets out of the shorter scale neck.

Fretboard Calculator

If you have the guitar in hand, the fret calculator above gives you the distance from the bridge to the frets so you can plug in your numbers and measure from the bridge saddles to the end of the neck pocket and see where that comes out.
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Not only is that a helpful link, but the website owner is a swell guy who looks like Brad Pitt. :laugh:
 
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