New Builder Questions...

G-Man

I've been meaning to ask, is there any truth to the scale length being really weird with Gibson guitars? I am playing with the idea of building a guitar that uses a Gibson-like scale length (24 5/8 or 24.625 , wtf?) and I stumbled upon this article http://www.edroman.com/techarticles/scalelength.htm

Then I found these on stewmac http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bodies,_necks,_wood/Electric_guitar_fingerboards/Slotted_Fingerboard_for_Gibson_Guitar.html which use a scale length of 24.562 , as oppposed to my 24.625 that I "should" be using.

Could I not then technically just put my bridge 24.562 away from the bridge side of the nut instead of 24.625? And then just use the http://www.stewmac.com/fretcalc tool and adjust it accordingly?

I have taken my first tentative steps towards this new hobby, made some scaled plans (scaled some scaled plans ?) and am starting with a pine prototype in the next month or 2, after I move into my new place (which has a big working space). I'm looking to spend a lot of time (and money ☹ ) and not rush anything at all (rather uncharacteristically) and then eventually do the proper build after having messed up a few pine examples.

Anything else I should be thinking about?

Gearhead

The last thing you should have to worry about is scale lenght, especially Ed Roman's opinion on it. Look at one of your guitars and measure between the nut and the 12th fret and compare to the length between the 12th fret and the bridge. You can then figure out where to put your bridge and how much intonation shift you can expect per string.
The various sizes Gibson used over the years are not so relevantly different that a new build should have anything to do with it - the fact that one factory is able to put out guitars at all those sizes says enough on its own.

If I were you I would stick with the scale length you can make, rather than design stuff that you cannot produce. The two factors that change are where the neck meets the body (usually on a certain fret) and where the bridge is (completely up to you), once you have that, the pups come somewhere in between (a few mm is not going to make much of a difference there).

G-Man

Thanks Gearhead, that sounds a bit more chilled than I was expecting. I want to buy a pre cut fretboard so it's good to know that I can alter things as I go as far as bridge placment goes. I have probably gotten a bit too far ahead of myself as it is anyway, but I have printed out my full sized plan , so I'm technically on my way. ?

I'm going neck-through, so it'll probably all end in disaster anyway :?