fretboard scale length?

Ben Jones · From: Seattle, Washington, USA

Hello all,

I am working on a fender 1000. It currently has homemade cardboard fretboards that i would like to replace. Right now the bridges are on backwards and the guitars scale is exactly 24 inches. If i flip the bridges the guitars scale is 24.75. i see some 24 inch scale fretboards for sale. I do not see any made for 24.5 or 24.75. My questions are:

1. As long as the tweth fret is dead center, does that extra half inch in scale matter much? Can i put a 24 inch board on a 24.75 inch scale guitar?

2. Does anyone know where to get 24.75 inch scale fretboards? 24.5?

3. Can anyone think of a cheap and easy way to replicate a fender fretboard from an original?

Thanks!
-Ben

Ben Jones · From: Seattle, Washington, USA

hmmm.. maybe my question was too convoluted?

I'll simplify:

Will a 24 inch scale fretboard work well on a guitar with a 24.5 inch scale as long as i center the twelth fret?

Clyde Lane · From: Glasgow, Kentucky, USA

No..... Contact Jeff at Show-Pro, he had some different scale boards made about a year ago. I got a 24.25 Sho-Bud board from him.
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Clyde Lane

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

The correct scale for an early 1000 is 24 1/2". Since you talk of the bridge being mounted "backwards", I guess it's safe to say you have some sort of added roller-bridge on the guitar. (The originals were just pieces of rod.) If you can't mount the bridge you have so that it's correct, I'd leave it mounted at 24", and get fretboards for that, they're pretty common. Fretboards custom made for non-standard scales (like 24 3/4") can be pricey, and the stock ones (24 1/2") are hard to find.

A fretboard that's 1/4" longer or shorter could be centered, but all frets but the 12th would be "off", with the biggest discrepancies at the ends of the fretboard - not an ideal situation!

Ben Jones · From: Seattle, Washington, USA

Thanks everyone. Those are the answers I was seeking.
Fretboard Scale matters down to the 1/4 inch.

Donny, someone chopped the front of the changer plates off this guitar and added roller bridges.
In doing so they changed the scale of the guitar apparently. I can do 24.75 or 24 depending on which way i flip the bridges, but if I do 24.75 the string windings actually ride up and onto the rollers and I am guessing thats not a good thing. Someone also did some routing and an attempted repair which is what those weird plastic black plates are hiding.

Bo Legg · Posted 8 Dec 2008 8:32 pm

Reduce it down to precise math. someting like 2/sqrt 2 = sqrt 2. I don't know why but it does.
Where from the roller nut of the PSG to the 12th fret it is 1/2 the distance from the roller nut to the roller butt of the PSG and the 24th fret is exactly 1/2 the distance from the 12th fret to the roller butt. When you go from the roller nut to the roller butt the octaves go to infinity. I other words you can never run out of octaves on a PSG. I tell you this because some PSG player is going to claim he played in the last octave and now you know that's not possible.

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

Like I said, leave it at 24", and get fretboards to match if those are wrong. That's definitely some flunkie's "hack job" on the bridge plates. and the bridges, which may be from an old Multi-Kord. I'm sure the black plates hide routing for other pickups, which the owner probably determined just got in the way of picking. The string-to-neck clearance on these guitars is quite low compared to most all other pedal steels.

Rick Winfield · From: Pickin' beneath the Palmettos

Here I go off on a tangent.
Doesn't a C6 fingerboard have a longer division between frets that an E9 ?

As far as making a fender fretboard- why not trace the fret pattern from the original and transfer it to wood, plexiglass, etc.
Rick

richard burton · From: Britain

Or use the mathematical formula to get the fret spacing:

Scale Length divided by 1.05946309435929 = distance to first fret.
Then subtract that measurement from the scale length, and divide that result by 1.05946309435929, and so on....

John Bechtel · From: Nashville, Tennessee, R.I.P.

I suggest you just leave the scale~length at 24” and then contact Tom Bradshaw or Bobbe Seymour for (2) 8-str. 24” scale fretboards, however; I'm not sure Sho-Bud ever made 8-str. fretboards for 24” scale The only ones I ever knew were 25”! That might be a hard ready-made item to find! I'm sure the string-length was probably shortened to help cut down on string-breakage on the 1000!
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<marquee> Go~Daddy~Go, (No), Go, It's your Break Time</marquee> L8R, jb
My T-10 Remington Steelmaster

Jim Palenscar · From: Oceanside, Calif, USA

Actually- the easy way is to go to Stewmac.com and under the left hand column- "free stuff" (or something to that effect)- bring up the fret calculator- all you have to do is put in the scale length and the number of frets and it will calculate it all for you and you can then print it out.

John Bechtel · From: Nashville, Tennessee, R.I.P.

And then you need to be good at reading a metal~scale to mark each fret exactly or your project will still come out wrong at frets 12 & 24!
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<marquee> Go~Daddy~Go, (No), Go, It's your Break Time</marquee> L8R, jb
My T-10 Remington Steelmaster

Danny Bates · From: Fresno, CA. USA

Ben,

A friend of mine, Chuck Fisher, took a strobe tuner and marked exactly where the frets of his guitar should be while it was strung up. His guitar came out perfect. Smile

Chuck Fisher is a member of this forum and a super nice guy.

This might be a lot easier than figuring calculations and then reading the rule and marking like John said.

Another plus is that you could use real frets on a real nice wooden fretboard. That might look super on that guitar. Cool

Danny Bates · From: Fresno, CA. USA

Here's a picture of frets on a steel guitar built by "Fellow Forumite" Rocky Hill.

I went to search and typed "Real and Frets" and got tons of links and saw this pic first and cropped and posted it.

You could probably use thin veneer and mark it with a pencil. Then pull the fretboard out, take a thin hand saw and cut some slots in it for frets that have a short thin tang.... a tang that's slightly smaller than the width of the saw blade. Then just cut the frets to length and glue them it. Then dress the sides.... BTW, Don't forget the fret markers!

Ben Jones · From: Seattle, Washington, USA

Good ideas everyone, thank you for the advice!

Jim Sliff · From: Lawndale California, USA

Ben-

You can set that to 24 1/2" - the changer has not been moved, someone just chopped the front off the plate and screwed the bridge down without drilling the plate. But those screws are not "set in stone". Keep the bridges in exactly the position they are , *remove* the screws, have a machine shop cut a sheet of aluminum the same thickness as the existing plate, then set the bridge back as far as possible without having the string windings hit the bridge, and you'll probably be right at 24 1/2". From the picture you have at least 1/2" of clearance right now, so it should work fine. Then drill new holes for the screws. The plate will not ned screws as the bridge screws will hold it.

The only problem you have is the cut-of plate won't let you move the bridge back far enough, so you ned to extend the plate (i.e. the aluminum sheet.). Extending the plate you'll be essentially putting it back in a somewhat stock configuration. I didn't notice that in the earlier pictures you sent - but the chopped top plate is the issue, not the bridge, and not the changer position.
_________________
No chops, but great tone
1930's/40's Rickenbacher/Rickenbacker 6&8 string lap steels
1921 Weissenborn Style 2; Hilo&Schireson hollownecks
Appalachian, Regal & Dobro squarenecks
1959 Fender 400 9+2 B6;1960's Fender 800 3+3+2; 1948 Fender Dual-8 Professional

Ray Shakeshaft · From: Kidderminster, Worcs, UK.

http://galileo.spaceports.com/~fishbake/index.html Halfway down the page you will see a link to this software. You put in the scale and it gives you a printed template that you can use to mark out fret positions without having to use a measure.

I have just 'designed' a National 'wings' style fretboard using Photoshop. Printed out (in two pieces) and put under plexiglass it looks fine and personally I like a pale coloured fretboard because I find it easier to see the strings when playing.

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