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measuring scale length

penguineman

penguineman

Guest
Feb 11, 2012
285
64
kansas
#1
ok so not to sound stupid or a noob here but from where to where do they measure the scale length? from the nut to the bridge or what? also how does that compare on a string threw body?? I have measured several of my Basses and my measurements are off from 1/2 to 1 inch different than what the manufactures listed in there listing for them. where did I go wrong?
 
#2
The measurement is taken between the two witness points of the string: one is at the nut and the other is where the string touches the bridge saddle. String through body won't affect your measurement since you only care about measuring from the bridge saddle to the nut.

Also, each string will have a slightly different length but they should be fairly close to a conventional scale length (30" /32" / 34" / 34.5" / 35" etc.).
 
#3
Hi.

The 12th fret is in the middle of the scale.

Therefore the scale lenght is the distance from the 0-fret (or the nut) to the 12th fret times two.

Whether the distance from the 12th fret to the saddle is close to the aforementioned distance or not, depends on many things, mainly on the string thickness.

Regards
Sam
 
#4
Thanks for the info thats kinda what I was thinking it was from the nut to the bridge but wasn't sure exacatally why I was comming up longer than what the manufactures was listing them at except that I was at the bridge measuring to the end of it and not the saddles. the neck deal makes sence with the 12th being center. Thanks again for the info everyone.
 
#5
Yep; for an accurate number, measure from the leading edge of the nut to the center of the 12th fret, then double it.
 
#10
Rocky McD said:
From the nut to the 12th fret is an exact distance, yet from the 12th fret to the witness point on the saddle is not the same, as the string diameter increases. Will that cause an intonation problem, at the 12th fret, on very thick strings?
Click to expand...

The reason for the differing saddle positions is to correct the intonation for things such as string size and action height.
 
#11
Rocky McD said:
From the nut to the 12th fret is an exact distance, yet from the 12th fret to the witness point on the saddle is not the same, as the string diameter increases. Will that cause an intonation problem, at the 12th fret, on very thick strings?
Rocky
Click to expand...

Absolutely, it causes on issue on all the strings.

Basically, if your frets are perfectly straight, then they are at least partially in the wrong place :) Stringed instruments with frets are really almost impossible to correctly and perfectly tune and intonate, but setting the intonation at the bridge allows you to compensate for the majority of the discrepancies. Compensated nuts, like those from Earvana and found on EBMM instruments help as well. Luckily for us, the issues don't seem to be as large sonically on lower frequency instruments like the bass than they are on higher frequency instruments like guitars.

Believe it or not, a perfect system would look something like this - a 'near perfect' and expensive system available for guitars and basses : [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Bass picture:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
So, to come back around to the original question, what you do as a solution is adjust the position of the bridge saddle (one an individual string basis) so that the fretted 12th fret note and the 12th fret harmonic are as identical as you can get them. Once you adjust the bridge saddle for one string, you consider it intonated and you go on to the next. Most luthiers and seup guys will use a tuner for this (a Peterson Strobe is what my guy uses) as those are more accurate than simply going by ear, but you can get close by ear with a bit of practice.
 
#13
Rocky McD said:
Very good explanation. What I was getting to is, if you set the intonation of your instrument at the 12th fret with a good strobe tuner. You will be very accurate at the 12th fret, yet, all other frets will be less than perfect. We must accept this compromise if we use standard, straight frets.
Rocky
Click to expand...

I prefer to set intonation at the 12th and 19th frets.
 

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