

It sounds like a lot of measuring and figuring, but if you take a look at the first diagram in this article ( this one), you’ll see that you can check clearance by dry fitting the parts and placing a straightedge on the fretboard and extending a line out to the bridge saddles. The bridge’s base height will dictate a lot of things along the scale length regarding string clearance, and is best used as a starting point for planning the rest of your guitar.

It’s no different for CAD designs – you want to know that you’ll have string clearance and play in the action before you commit.Ĭonsiderations should be made for your bridge’s adjustment heights before you route a neck pocket, pitch the neck, or thickness a fretboard. This way, you can assure that you’ll have a perfectly flat plane between the nut and saddles. When you’re making a guitar by hand, you don’t have to have all your math down on paper from the start, but you should know exactly which bridge you’re going to be using beforehand. Bridge Height, String Clearance, and Fretboard Thickness If you don’t have the bridge in hand to measure just yet, the manufacturers will usually include precise diagrams and/or measurements on their websites. The bridge width will depend on whatever hardware you’re choosing for the guitar. If you want to have a reach of two octaves, use them. The result will be in the same mm or inches as you entered. You can enter your scale in mm of in inches, it doesn't change the calculation. All you have to do is enter your scale length.
Fanned fretboard template free#
If you’re making a guitar with one of our free templates, the nut width can be measured after printing or in a program like Adobe Illustrator. This tool quickly calculates the required positions of your frets. The scale length and fretboard radius is just a matter of preference really – this tutorial only deals with straight-radius fretboards though. Before we begin, we need our measurements.
