Quote:
Originally Posted by mikejdexter  Hi Andrew
Thanks for the reply. Why do frets make the difference?--As the notes on the bass are the same as the bottom four strings of the guitar. |
String core stretch. The larger the core of the string, the more it will stretch as it is fretted or stopped, and the sharper it will go. On a double bass, this is dealt with subconsciously by where the finger stops the string. On a fretted electric bass, this has to be compensated for by the offset of the bridge saddle, and even sometimes (as on my custom fanned fret P-style bass) at the nut end as well. All guitars should have some sort of compensation as well: the angled saddle on a steel-string acoustic, or the adjustible saddles on most electrics. The core stretch is not so different from string-to-string on classical guitars, which traditionally are fretted on the "rule of 17" instead of 2^(n/12) mathematical placement, so some compensation is already built into the method of fretting and bridge placement.
Bridge Angle 
