Posted on August 11, 2021May 30, 2025 by Dale Phillips Calculating Fret Scales Calculating Fret Scales by Bob Petrulis Originally published in Guild of American Luthiers Data Sheet #4, 1974 and Lutherie Woods and Steel String Guitars, 1998 When many of us were starting out, calculating fret scales seemed an arcane and mysterious art, something known to a few high priests of the craft. As kids, we copied scales from existing guitars, or got a list of measurements from a book or by pestering an instrument maker. We did this partly because we knew little of the physics of music, and partly because, back in the dark ages, calculators and computers were not easily available to teenage kids trying to make musical instruments in their basements or in wood shop at school. This article provides the information you need to calculate any fret scale in any unit of measurement you wish. I am assuming you are calculating a chromatic scale, twelve notes to the octave. If you need to calculate a scale, say, for a dulcimer, I recommend that you calculate the entire fret scale, and then remove the unneeded frets from your listing. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on August 11, 2021May 20, 2025 by Dale Phillips Neck Relief Neck Relief by Philip Mayes Originally published in Guild of American Luthiers Data Sheet #124, 1979 and Lutherie Woods and Steel String Guitars, 1998 A spate of repairs involving fret buzzing set me thinking about the ideal neck shape. Some people like a flat fingerboard. Lots of people advocate a neck that’s straight at the body and lifts slightly towards the head, as seen in Fig. 1. Some people vote for a tapering away at the end of the fingerboard, as in Fig. 2. The reason for all this, of course, is to accommodate the shape of a plucked string, diagramed in Fig. 3. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on August 11, 2021May 16, 2025 by Dale Phillips Taking the Guitar Beyond Equal Temperament Taking the Guitar Beyond Equal Temperament by Don Musser Originally published in American Lutherie #30, 1991 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 If someone were to tell you that the simple C chord you just played on your perfectly intonated, handmade guitar was in fact significantly out of tune with itself, you might have a few doubts and perhaps some curiosity about just what he was talking about. If that person were Mark Rankin and he happened to have his little Martin set up with the just intonation, key-of-C fretboard, and you compared a C chord on that guitar to the C chord on your guitar, instead of doubts and curiosity you would have something else: the beginning of a revelation, a revelation not only about the guitar itself, but about the foundation of the music we play on it. Back in 1987, David Ouellette, a Eugene, Oregon musician for whom I had built several guitars in the early 1980s called and wanted a new, unconventional instrument built. It was to be a special guitar with magnetic interchangeable fretboards having staggered frets set up for alternative tunings of the scale steps within the octave. The standard guitar fretboard we all play on is based on the equal-tempered scale where the octave is divided into twelve equal half-step intervals. This equal division of the octave is good in that it allows modulation from key to key without intolerable dissonance. Its drawback, though, is that the scale intervals are tempered, i.e., harmonically inaccurate and slightly out of tune with one another. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on August 11, 2021May 29, 2025 by Dale Phillips Conical Fretboard Radiusing Jig Conical Fretboard Radiusing Jig by Mike Nealon Originally published in American Lutherie #66, 2001 How flat does the top surface of a fretboard need to be? A good working estimate would be to equate the tolerance to the gap between the top of the 2nd fret and the bottom of a string fretted at the 1st fret. The tolerance must be less than this gap or the 2nd fret will come into contact with the string. With the bottom of the open string about .01" above the top of the 1st fret and about 1/16" from the top of the 20th fret, the gap between the fretted string and the top of the second fret is about .005". Making a hardwood board flat to within .005" is not too difficult using ordinary woodworking tools. The router table and movable plate described here will produce a machine-carved surface smooth enough to require only a minimal amount of sanding or leveling. Photo 1 shows the jig fully assembled, with the router. Photo 2 shows the jig partially disasembled to show the function of the parts. The conical fretboard made with this jig has a 10" radius at the nut, flattening to a radius of 16" at the last fret. The fretboard blank is 3/8" × 2 1/2" × 21", and is flat on one side. The finished fretboards are 7/32" thick at the crown, and taper from 1 11/16" at the nut to 2 3/16" at the 12th fret (12.670" from the nut). Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on August 11, 2021May 21, 2025 by Dale Phillips Frets and Fingerboard Care Frets and Fingerboard Care by Randy Stockwell Originally published in Guild of American Luthiers Quarterly Volume 7, #2, 1979 and Lutherie Woods and Steel String Guitars, 1998 Neck Shapes. I credit Leo Bidne for his perceptions of the relationship between the fingerboard bow and the string’s motion. I use heat treatment to obtain these results when the problems are severe enough. But I find that most instruments, while needing some neck curve help, are not in serious enough trouble to merit the use of heat. Most can be put in the proper curvature through careful and diligent fret dressing and tension rod adjustment (granted sufficient fret height to begin with). When the frets are too low or the curve too great, refretting is usually called for anyway. The fingerboard itself can then be reshaped to the suitable curves. Of course, if the fault is bad enough to call for a major removal of wood, I definitely resort to heat, neck resets, major neck rebuilding, and so on. Even after heat treatment, I find it necessary to finish with fingerboard and/or fret-dressing procedures. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
