Checking Scale for Building a Guitar

Video Transcript

"Hi I’m Frank Pope, FBI Guitars, and I’m here on behalf of Expert Village to talk to you guys about how to build your own guitar. Now I’m going to be talking to you for a few minutes about some of the things you need to decide before you decide which type of guitar you want to build. One of the most important things for you to decide is what scale length you'll need to build the guitar. You need to understand that there are basically three different scale lengths that are utilized in the guitar industry. One is the Gibson scale which is 24.75in roughly, that's how it’s referred to, the other is the PRS scale which is a 25in scale and then there is a Fender scale which is 25.5in. Now by scale what we mean is the total distance from the nut to the ideal center point for the bridge. So if you have a twenty five inch scale from the nut of the guitar to the bridge where the string breaks over the saddle should be twenty five inches. Now we're going to talk about some differences that occur when you set the insinuation on the guitar but for right now let’s just assume that. You'll remember from your scale that form the nut to the twelfth fret will always be half the scale. So if you don't know what scale a guitar is and you don't have a measuring tool that's any longer then twelve inches you can generally tell by measuring to the twelfth fret. In other words if it's a twenty five and a half inch scale then you’re going to have twelve and three quarter inches if it's a twenty five inch scale you’re going to have twelve and a half inches to the top fret and to the top of the twelfth fret and then from the twelfth fret to the nut. This particular neck I’m holding is a twenty five inch scale. This guitar is built on a twenty five and a half inch scale a fender scale. The red guitar on the wall behind me is built to the shorter Gibson scale now the way that will affect the guitar is you must remember the guitar strings are steel and there stretched to a certain tension. The longer the string the tighter it will have to be stretched to reach concert pitch. Another word, a longer piece of steel will be tighter then a shorter piece to reach the same note so you should play all types of these guitars to see which one suits you best. The Fender guitars, with the twenty five and a half inch scales, the strings will feel slightly tighter to an experienced player. The twenty five inch scale will feel somewhere between the Gibson short scale and the Fender scale. If you’re going to play really heavy metal with really big strings you'll probably want to stay away from the shorter scale because the string really won't have enough tension to be able to stay above the frets when you start to push on it. So like I say try out all three, you can build a guitar of any style with any of those three scales. Decide which one you want and then you can move on to choosing which kind of guitar you want."