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I find myself adjusting my fingerboard dimensions (scale length, nut width, string-spacing, taper, string setback, etc) on almost everybuild, and I confess I've sometimes made errors in my calculations. For my latest guitars, I decided to get this sorted into a spreadsheet to do the calculations easily and without error! I've posted the spreadsheet on my website under "Other pages", and you can find a link here: http://www.mullinguitars.com/calculating-guitar-fret-spacing-fingerboard-dimensions-and-string-setback.html

The cells in blue font are user changeable and are where you enter the proposed specs for your instrument. You can enter in metric or decimal inches, or you can enter a formula to convert, say, a client spec given in inches (which is pretty common in factory literature) to metric (which is how I build). The calculations are then automatic. If you don't want equal string setback on both treble and bass, you can fiddle with string spacing at the nut to give you the desired setback at the nut for one side, then all other positions are calculated for that same side.

I hope this helps someone -- it's certainly helping to keep my records straight.

Thanks, Tim!

Can you tell me what the factor is that you used in Cell A6.

I know that I should know because it is an important number for laying out scales (17.81....) but when I try reverse engineering your spreadsheet, it varies a little from fret to fret, probably because of a rounding to a certain number decimal points.

Thanks,

Mark

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A world without music would Bb.

Thanks, Tim.

Like you, I think paying attention to set back is important.

Ed

It's good to know that someone is actually able to open and use this sheet -- I've had complaints from people getting sheet protection and file encryption errors. I expect this has something to do with trying to save a worksheet under a backwards compatible format for those with earlier versions of Excel.

If you go back and re-download the file, you'll find the file is now unprotected. No need to reverse engineer -- the factor I used is 17.817152.

Thanks again , Tim.

The spreadsheet was working just fine. It's just that I like to tinker with such things to make something more idiot-(as in me!)-friendly so It fits my own purposes and couldn't figure out how to unhide the line 6. I appreciate your willingness to share.

Mark

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A world without music would Bb.

You should google fretfind .. they have a program that not only takes all of this into consideration (offsets, nut width, scale length, saddle spacing), including multiscale fingerboards .. but it creates a file you save and can print thats so close I use it to cut slots for all my MS fingerboards ...

I sat down one day and created files for all the different MS's I use .. all I have to do isprint them off they are right on the PC ...

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

This is certainly an interesting tool, particularly for MS fingerboards -- thanks Tony! I really like the fact that it can print a template -- very cool -- although I'd like to see basic fingerboard dimensions printed out more clearly (nowhere is total nut width or total width at any other fret spelled out, at least, not that I could see). You're right when you say the data are all there, but not all are presented very clearly -- wouldn't want one of my clients to have to figure it out.

You might need to download this again, Mark -- I had to strip away all cell locking to make this backward compatible -- particularly on Macs. Highlight rows 5-7 (point at the row numbers, left click to select them), then RIGHT click and select "unhide" -- voilà -- row 6 will be visible! There should be no protection anywhere on the sheet, so tinker to your heart's content. If you "lose" any formulas along the way, just download it again from the website.

Tim