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I've made the new bridge, and stuck it in position with double sided tape, I then put a rule on the edge of the fingerboard and marked a kine on the bridge then did the same on the other side. The gap measured 57mm I then took 3mm off each side which is what I'll allow at the nut, leaving me 51mm I removed the 1mm for any discrepancys that may creep in and divided 50mm by 6 to give 8.333mm string spacing does this sound correct?

Would I be safer to drill the holes after it's glued on and I've done a stone and set and made the nut?

Cheers

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Formerly JJH

I learn more from my mistakes than my successes

You need to divide by 5 as you have only 5 spaces between 6 strings
Your spacing is on the low side of the range.
Usually SS have between 2 and 2 1/4 inches ( 51 to 57 mm) at the saddle

Any time i am unsure about something like this, i dig out a guitar with nut and bridge spacing that i like, and measure it. I don't like to do the math.

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Jordan Aceto
Ithaca, NY

hi John,

I am thinking you didnt make the FB wide enough at the high end .... you should be getting more than 57mm with at the bridge assuming you are extending the FB edges .. the string spacing should be around 55-57 for a std guitar, so you should be getting about 60-62 or so at the bridge ...

Check your next build .... the 12the fret width of the FB should be close to the bridge string spacing ... draw it out to scale before you taper the next one to see.

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

John,

As I asked on your other thread, what is the fingerboard width at the nut and at the 12th fret?

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

John, I have an Excel spreadsheet (thanks AZ!!!) that measures all those spacings for you and you can use it to calculate spacings at the saddle as well. You simply need to enter the nut width, what space you want from the edge of the E's (high and low) and the string sizes and you're good to go.

The idea is to have the same spacing between the strings, taking into cosideration their different sizes...

Just send me your e-mail addy in a PM (or anyone else who would like this calculator) and I'll gladly send it to you. Made my life a lot easier, let me tell you...

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

Guys at the nut it's 44mm and 50mm and the twelfth, I obviously made an error somewhere

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Formerly JJH

I learn more from my mistakes than my successes

John,

Now the obvious question is what are the corresponding measurements on the Kinkead plan

The nut width sounds OK but 50mm at the 12th fret is very narrow. I suspect that the first bridge you made was as per the plans but you had made the neck and fingerboard with a very narrow taper.

Two options really, go with your neck and second bridge with narrow string spacing, or go back to the first bridge and make a new neck. 50mm saddle string spacing is going to be very cramped for fingerstyle playing but not impossible. Fine for strumming and cowboy chords

As this is your first and you are already planning more instrumnets, if it were me I'd do the first. This has been a huge "learning" experience for you but try to slow down and think/measure/think/measure before you jump in and cut/glue.

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

Kinkead's plan shows 54mm bridge string spacing and 54mm at the 12 fret ( that's 2 1/8" for the metrically challenged). 50mm would be too tight for me, but I have played 2 1/8" successfully, though I preferred 2 1/4". So John you'll have to decide what option you want to go with, new neck or new bridge.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

New bridge on and drilled with the original neck, I seldom play past the fifth fret, ans just finger pick to cowboy chords, not a true finger style player, it'll also be interesting as I now suffer bad cramps when playing wider necked instruments at one point I couldn't play for more that a 5 minute stretch so I'll have to learn o played cramped.

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Formerly JJH

I learn more from my mistakes than my successes