guitar bridge placement calculator

The string width at the bridge is the distance along the bridge from the center of the first string to the center of the last string. For guitars and other fretted instruments the placement of the frets is based on the scale length. See the page entitled Calculating Fret Positionson this site for more info on fret placement. The placement of pickups along the guitar scale is undoubtedly one of the most influential factors of the sound of the bass and the electric guitar. Additionally, magnetic pickups have wide "apertures": they sense a pretty big length of the string, not the string at just one point (humbuckers: doubly so). Where do I place the pickups? Calculating Fret Positions for Multiple Scale Length Fretboards. Changes in pickup placement near the bridge are far more noticeable than those near the neck position. Calculate fret placement for guitar, bass, banjo, mandolin, dulcimer, and more in inches or metric. The scale length of an instrument is the distance between the edge of the nut and the nominal bridge saddle position. The nearer the bridge, the more "trebly" the tone will be, with lower output level (due to the shorter amplitude of the string vibration at that point). Our Fret Calculator also gives you compensated bridge placement -- only at stewmac.com! The scale length is the playing/speaking length of the string measured from the nut to the bridge. If you are installing a Tune-O-Matic bridge, the bridge is often tilted slightly on the bass side, by roughly 3 degrees or so. But the graphic above only shows the nodes created by the vibration of the open strings. I'm using delta x distance (distance measured along a line drawn perpendicular to the neck's midline) because I think that is what you would feel as the width if you were playing an instrument with multiple scale lengths. If it is sharp then you'll have to move the contact point away from the nut. Is all about testing different angles, and checking the results. Is it better? Moving the bridge too far from the neck increases scale length and creates flat fretted notes. By using this tool, you can determine the length fingerboard you should purchase. If the bridge was located here for fretted instruments though, the pitch of each note would be sharp and this sharpness w… In basses, it is better to place the bridge pickup not so close to the bridge: we need it where those fat strings are vibrating enough. Slanting is not recommended for humbuckers, though. Bridge pickup: in electric guitars the bridge pickup is placed a few millimeters away from the bridge. Plucked strings vibrate in a complex way, a superposition of several vibration modes activated simultaneously. Depending on the scale and personal preferences, the distance from pickup to bridge could be 1" (25.4 mm) or more. This number (commonly converted to inches) & doubled is essentially your scale length. Is this guitar's bridge saddle in the right place? In general, the closer to the fretboard the better, since the sound will be mellower and louder. If 12 th fret intonation for a string is flat then you'll need to move the point where the string actually contacts the saddle back towards the nut a little. Check the measurements of basses of the same scale as yours whose sound pleases you. What is the practical way to place pickups, then? SOME POINTS OF HISTORY By studying how great geniuses like Leo Fender and Les Paul designed their first instruments, we can understand more about the importance of pickup placement for our sound. Each fretted string gets its vibrating length shortened, so a new configuration of nodes emerges; the cancellations occur in different places for each fret! Since both the nut and bridge saddle can be slanted on a multiple scale length instrument this calculator also provides offsets for each end of the nut and each end of the bridge saddle as well. There are two input modes. This article is a short excerpt that will help with a common uncertainness when designing an electric guitar or bass. In the example, the gray bars (i.e., the magnets) do not meet any nodes, that is, the points at which the curves values are zero. Yes, the response of the pickup should be audibly different. We designed it for use prior to cutting saddle slots in new bridges, or when filling and recutting existing saddle slots (methods such as placing dowels or pins under the strings can be inaccurate, because string pressure tends to move the dowels forward). In order to place the bridge saddles in the correct location, you're going to have to hold the ruler on the 12th fret (on the actual metal fret, not in between the two) & then measure the distance from here to the inside of the guitar nut at the top of the neck, where it meets the wood. Neck pickup: in guitars, place the pickup close to the end of the fretboard. The distance between the guitar nut and bridge is the scale length. Guitar building tips. This is typical for Fender electric guitars and a lot of other guitars as well. Yes, the sound may vary with millimetrical pickup position changes - but there is simply no "mathematical", "correct" way to place pickups, because the resulting, slightly different sounds are not objectively good or bad, they are simply different. That depends on the sound you are looking for. I-4462 Locating the saddle slot on steel-string acoustic guitars. The calculation method determines how FretFind calculates fret placement. Excerpt from the book "Electric Guitar & Bass Design" by Leonardo Lospennato. Changing the placement of the pickups changes the way each vibration mode is perceived by the pickup. In short, trying to avoid (or meet) any tonal node is a non-issue. Again, there is no mathematical recipe. Leonardo Lospennato is the author of a 250 page book focused entirely on electric guitar design. Changes in pickup placement near the bridge are far more noticeable than those near the neck position. An important factor that determines where the bridge will be situated on the body is the point where the neck meets the body. The Intonator finds the correct locations for acoustic flattop guitar bridge saddle placement. That makes it impossible, from a practical standpoint, to avoid all nodes for all frets. It is often said that if a pickup (or more properly, its magnets) were placed under the node at the 24th fret, three of the principal eight modes would simply not be perceived by the pickup, because three overtone curves have a zero value at that particular point. http://www.lospennato.com. distance from bridge to nut or in the Brian may case the Zero fret to the bridge Slanting single coils in too big an angle will cause the same situation.