o ye string been doing it for years. I cut 2 pcs string and masking tape both ends tight so i can see alinement of both sides at the same time.Also helps check nut and string height.
I bought an Axis sterling and it plays and sounds great only problem i came across is that the strings don't like up with the pick up bars or posts ... don't sit in the dead center of them, they are positioned a quarter way more down and it looks like a 2 point tremolo if have to pop of and make a new whole oh wells ... you can feel it when playing the high e string slips of the fretboard alot
I'm building a strat with 3 single coil routes, but i'm having one hell of a time with the bridge/trem install I have the lines marked using a straight edge along side of the neck,and then measured 25.5". The problem I am having is the side to side alignment and the saddles. I also have the top and bottom e string loosely installed to check edge clearance up and down the neck, but again the saddles are my concern how to adjust them for lining up on the scale length. I'm at the point it's driving me crazy because it's currently the only thing holding me up, pickups are wound, electronics installed etc. Thanks for any help,and great video also
Hi not too long back I had to change the angle of a neck. Realizing that the neck contact with body is the most critical I used a small plastic shim in the deepest part of the cavity to get my desired angle and I mixed up a small batch of Auto Bondo material smeared it around in the base of the cavity and around the edges sting below the body line. I wrapped the neck is tightly as I could with Saran Wrap bolted in place as tight as I could. Just cause the excess Bondo to squeeze out of the edges I made a perfect contact seat to the body little cleanup work and it might as well be a set neck thank you this message has been brought to you by Eric Paul recycled guitars
...waste of effort: what are the acoustic energy transfer properties of bondo....? poor. also bondo won't stand much compressive force before it crumbles...unless maybe it has elastomers in it, which have vibration-dampening properties, which brings us back to my original statement.
@@FB-gm6el hello this is Eric fall recycled guitars. I use a fiberglass Bondo. And we're only talking about a few thousands of an inch down to a knife blade. When you compress the neck in their you have as perfect of a mating surface as absolutely possible. Half of the guitars that I've come across unless if they're really really high-end it looks like the pockets have been chiseled out with a hand chisel. That being said you're not going to get any sound crown for through that at all. And if you look at all the custom-made guitars on the market some of them are plastic some of them are aluminum necks so your soundtrack for is going to come from the most secure solid flat surface possible. I hope you're not just one of those naysayers, but I've done this method several times and I've had excellent results. But thanks for your comment
LOVE your channel. Wealth of knowledge, thank you! Noticing you are mounting the bridge and adding ferrules after the finish on the body is done (or close to it). I am about to start a build and was planning to do bridge positioning and ferrules before I finish the body. Is there a real pro/con with either approach? Thanks!
This was an old video. Since then, I have changed my methods to drilling before applying the finish. That way there's less of a chance of damaging the finish. The only thing you need to be careful of is clogging the holes with finish later on. Not hard to do. Just clean them out with a q-tip before the finish dries.
Wait, at around 4:36 to 4:50, while marking the five spots to drill, it looks like the bridge is moving around because of the way you move the marker/pen/pencil...?
@@HighlineGuitars it's not 'overthinking' when you see the demonstrator doing something that looks wrong but doesn't seem to care about it, and you ask them about it!₩ It's an obvious mistake in the video; if you are going to 'stage' something, you should at least get it right.
Forgive me i'm not a guiter player so no clue what that means...(i'm a carpenter so was doing this as a playable showpiece)....by scale do you mean how high and low it can go note wise? Is that not done by tuning?
@@robjames5623 scale length is the distance between the nut and the bridge. It dictates the tone and tension of the strings as well as the position (spacing) of the frets. If you move the bridge toward the nut, the position and spacing of the frets must change or the guitar won’t be playable. You can’t have a bridge positioned at 24 inches if the frets were positioned for a 25” scale length.
Hey Rob, don't move it that way, the bridge needs to go where it needs to go. Where he's setting it will allow all of the saddles to later be adjusted back and intonate properly. He's allowing a 3/32" safety factor and then all of the remaining travel of the saddles is available to be set. They will all need to move and adjust back towards the wood end you were hoping to show off. I have heard 1.5mm versus the 3/32" he's talking about. Once you start pushing a string down the stretch will cause it to go sharp, so they will move back to compensate. Good luck!
wait, you measure with the saddles all the way out? I'm just checking because other videos have the saddles set halfway between their furthest in and furthest out points..
I always set the saddles all the way (or almost all the way) forward. The reason is because the scale length for each string is usually longer than what you might expect it to be.
@@BarryWarne You move them back until the note when you press the string at the twelfth fret shows it is in tune the same as the open string when using an electric tuner.
What kind of bridge is that? Looks like a Gotoh. Those sell for about $50. Are the $15 versions that are sold by companies Guitar Fetish or Guitarheads just as good? Or should they be avoided?
so it'll be safe to say that you should put your intonation screws right about dead center and then make that your initial saddle position so you can intonate either left or right
no, i believe that *actual* measured string length will always be a bit longer than the (theoretical/calculated) string length, increasing with string mass. in other words, all intonation adjustments will be those that increase string length.
@@FB-gm6el You are correct in first statement. My fender guitars are perfectly intonated with the high E saddle almost all the way forward corresponding to (almost) the exact (theoretical) scale length , and the low E saddle almost all the way backwards. However, your second post does not fit my experience. I think mass increases due to sweat, dirt and oxidation are negligible. I'm willing to bet intonation will be lost due to string losing its original elastic properties much sooner than you can accumulate mass due to dirt, etc.
Hi, I may have misunderstood. But if the scale is 25.5", why is the bridge and string break placed at 25.75"? Should the string break of the saddle be at 25.5" Or 25.75" Thanks.
It depends on the type of bridge. The adjustable saddles on a Fender-style bridge are how you achieve compensation. However, some bridges, like the tune-o-matic, require they be mounted at an angle with the bass saddles further from the nut than the treble saddles in order to achieve proper intonation. This video demonstrates the installation of a Fender-style hardtail bridge.
Hello, i had all the right mesures when i installed the Bridge, but when i play a E chord it sounds fine but when a play a power chord or something like that its not on tune, what can i do? Thank you in advance
He doesn't address the issue of compensation in this video, which I think really should have. You need to adjust the intonation. There are videos on youtube that will show you this and explain about compensation.
My drawings says that for a 25.5 scale guitar with a 24 fret neck, I should have at least 6 1/4 of space for the humbuckers from the top of the bridge plate to the end of the fretboard... does that make any sense?
Why did you put all the saddles all the way up ?. Shouldn't it have been in the middle of the run so as to have or save regulation for both sides back and forth? Thank you very much....ah..I just read your answer to another guy noting the same thing.
In most cases, each string will intonate slightly longer than the actual scale length. If I were position the bridge with the saddles set at the middle of their adjustment range, there's a good chance the low e saddle will not be able to move back far enough to intonate.
@@HighlineGuitars , thank you! I made a guitar years ago and I did it the "middle" way (from a book that I found in the library) and the intonation ended up being at the very edge of travel. I'm attempting to make a new fender hardtail strat guitar now and I will use your method.
Roughly the same idea with the saddle portion of the tune-o-matic. Measure it strait and parallel with the neck then move the high E side of the bridge 3° towards the neck to allow proper travel for intonation of the higher strings. At least that's what I've read and seen in other videos
Wrong. You simply divide your odd scale length by 2 and that is how far back from the 12th fret you measure to determine the bridge position. You can alternatively measure the bridge position from the nut if you have a long enough ruler.
Thanks for all the great videos. So helpful and clear.
o ye string been doing it for years. I cut 2 pcs string and masking tape both ends tight so i can see alinement of both sides at the same time.Also helps check nut and string height.
Chris, your videos are awesome. Thank you so much for the wealth of knowledge you share.
Glad you like them!
I bought an Axis sterling and it plays and sounds great only problem i came across is that the strings don't like up with the pick up bars or posts ... don't sit in the dead center of them, they are positioned a quarter way more down and it looks like a 2 point tremolo if have to pop of and make a new whole oh wells ... you can feel it when playing the high e string slips of the fretboard alot
I'm building a strat with 3 single coil routes, but i'm having one hell of a time with the bridge/trem install I have the lines marked using a straight edge along side of the neck,and then measured 25.5". The problem I am having is the side to side alignment and the saddles. I also have the top and bottom e string loosely installed to check edge clearance up and down the neck, but again the saddles are my concern how to adjust them for lining up on the scale length. I'm at the point it's driving me crazy because it's currently the only thing holding me up, pickups are wound, electronics installed etc. Thanks for any help,and great video also
www.stewmac.com/video-and-ideas/online-resources/learn-about-guitar-and-instrument-fretting-and-fretwork/scale-length-explained.html
So you dont need a drill press or even a jig? You can just freehand the holes on this type of a bridge?
Really like the guitar, great color.
Hi not too long back I had to change the angle of a neck. Realizing that the neck contact with body is the most critical I used a small plastic shim in the deepest part of the cavity to get my desired angle and I mixed up a small batch of Auto Bondo material smeared it around in the base of the cavity and around the edges sting below the body line. I wrapped the neck is tightly as I could with Saran Wrap bolted in place as tight as I could. Just cause the excess Bondo to squeeze out of the edges I made a perfect contact seat to the body little cleanup work and it might as well be a set neck thank you this message has been brought to you by Eric Paul recycled guitars
...waste of effort: what are the acoustic energy transfer properties of bondo....? poor. also bondo won't stand much compressive force before it crumbles...unless maybe it has elastomers in it, which have vibration-dampening properties, which brings us back to my original statement.
@@FB-gm6el hello this is Eric fall recycled guitars. I use a fiberglass Bondo. And we're only talking about a few thousands of an inch down to a knife blade. When you compress the neck in their you have as perfect of a mating surface as absolutely possible. Half of the guitars that I've come across unless if they're really really high-end it looks like the pockets have been chiseled out with a hand chisel. That being said you're not going to get any sound crown for through that at all. And if you look at all the custom-made guitars on the market some of them are plastic some of them are aluminum necks so your soundtrack for is going to come from the most secure solid flat surface possible. I hope you're not just one of those naysayers, but I've done this method several times and I've had excellent results. But thanks for your comment
LOVE your channel. Wealth of knowledge, thank you! Noticing you are mounting the bridge and adding ferrules after the finish on the body is done (or close to it). I am about to start a build and was planning to do bridge positioning and ferrules before I finish the body. Is there a real pro/con with either approach? Thanks!
This was an old video. Since then, I have changed my methods to drilling before applying the finish. That way there's less of a chance of damaging the finish. The only thing you need to be careful of is clogging the holes with finish later on. Not hard to do. Just clean them out with a q-tip before the finish dries.
@@HighlineGuitars thank you!
what if i have a 2 point tremolo? How can i align it correctly? Thank you
Wait, at around 4:36 to 4:50, while marking the five spots to drill, it looks like the bridge is moving around because of the way you move the marker/pen/pencil...?
This shot was staged for the video. Don't overthink it.
Allrighty :-)
@@HighlineGuitars it's not 'overthinking' when you see the demonstrator doing something that looks wrong but doesn't seem to care about it, and you ask them about it!₩
It's an obvious mistake in the video; if you are going to 'stage' something, you should at least get it right.
@@garyrowe58 The video was correct. There was no mistake. The movement of the bridge was concentric so its position didn't change.
@@HighlineGuitars So you moved it but its position didn't change. OK, whatever you say.
It possible to relocate the bridge higher up the guitar without issue? I want more blank body for artwork.
Best wishes
Only if you’re okay with shortening the scale length.
Forgive me i'm not a guiter player so no clue what that means...(i'm a carpenter so was doing this as a playable showpiece)....by scale do you mean how high and low it can go note wise? Is that not done by tuning?
@@robjames5623 scale length is the distance between the nut and the bridge. It dictates the tone and tension of the strings as well as the position (spacing) of the frets. If you move the bridge toward the nut, the position and spacing of the frets must change or the guitar won’t be playable. You can’t have a bridge positioned at 24 inches if the frets were positioned for a 25” scale length.
Hi..
OK thank you.
Which 'nut' are you referencing please?
Hey Rob, don't move it that way, the bridge needs to go where it needs to go. Where he's setting it will allow all of the saddles to later be adjusted back and intonate properly. He's allowing a 3/32" safety factor and then all of the remaining travel of the saddles is available to be set. They will all need to move and adjust back towards the wood end you were hoping to show off. I have heard 1.5mm versus the 3/32" he's talking about. Once you start pushing a string down the stretch will cause it to go sharp, so they will move back to compensate. Good luck!
Thank you so much for this video!!!!
You are so welcome!
Can we install a tremolo bridge in this
wait, you measure with the saddles all the way out? I'm just checking because other videos have the saddles set halfway between their furthest in and furthest out points..
I always set the saddles all the way (or almost all the way) forward. The reason is because the scale length for each string is usually longer than what you might expect it to be.
That's right, when you fret a string it bends and makes the string a little longer.
so, I think you said move the saddles all the way out, then 1/32 back? Was that the measurement back?
@@BarryWarne You move them back until the note when you press the string at the twelfth fret shows it is in tune the same as the open string when using an electric tuner.
How would I do this for a kahler tremolo?
Kahler has videos on this.
Thank you, very helpful
12.75 from the center of the fret? The center of the wire? the part where our finger goes?
The fret wire.
@@HighlineGuitars I swear some of these questions amaze me about how little people are able to THINK.
What kind of bridge is that? Looks like a Gotoh. Those sell for about $50. Are the $15 versions that are sold by companies Guitar Fetish or Guitarheads just as good? Or should they be avoided?
so it'll be safe to say that you should put your intonation screws right about dead center and then make that your initial saddle position so you can intonate either left or right
no, i believe that *actual* measured string length will always be a bit longer than the (theoretical/calculated) string length, increasing with string mass. in other words, all intonation adjustments will be those that increase string length.
...and string mass increases as strings age, too, ie get dirty and corroded.
@@FB-gm6el You are correct in first statement. My fender guitars are perfectly intonated with the high E saddle almost all the way forward corresponding to (almost) the exact (theoretical) scale length , and the low E saddle almost all the way backwards. However, your second post does not fit my experience. I think mass increases due to sweat, dirt and oxidation are negligible. I'm willing to bet intonation will be lost due to string losing its original elastic properties much sooner than you can accumulate mass due to dirt, etc.
Hi, I may have misunderstood. But if the scale is 25.5", why is the bridge and string break placed at 25.75"? Should the string break of the saddle be at 25.5" Or 25.75" Thanks.
12.75" not 25.75" That's half the 25.5" scale as measured from the 12th fret.
Are you accounting for compensation when placing the bridge exactly at half the scale length, or are you just relying on the adjustable saddles?
It depends on the type of bridge. The adjustable saddles on a Fender-style bridge are how you achieve compensation. However, some bridges, like the tune-o-matic, require they be mounted at an angle with the bass saddles further from the nut than the treble saddles in order to achieve proper intonation. This video demonstrates the installation of a Fender-style hardtail bridge.
A close up view of the bridge would have been helpful to see where your measure is taken. On first viewing it wasn't clear to me.
Hello, i had all the right mesures when i installed the Bridge, but when i play a E chord it sounds fine but when a play a power chord or something like that its not on tune, what can i do? Thank you in advance
He doesn't address the issue of compensation in this video, which I think really should have. You need to adjust the intonation. There are videos on youtube that will show you this and explain about compensation.
My drawings says that for a 25.5 scale guitar with a 24 fret neck, I should have at least 6 1/4 of space for the humbuckers from the top of the bridge plate to the end of the fretboard... does that make any sense?
That's about right.
Highline Guitars thanks
why do you measure from the centre of the twelfth fret and not the fret wire?
dont worry, thought it through
So between the two humbuckers, how much space you have 3”?
The distance between the pickup cavity centers is about 3.7"
shouldn't you have the nut in place and line it up from groove in the nut?
Not if you make your own nut. That has to come later.
@@HighlineGuitars Good point! Good video also , very helpful as I'm building my first but not from a kit.
Ty
why do you need ground wire on electric guitar?
So you don't get electrocuted and to reduce electrical noise.
@@HighlineGuitars I see, thank you
Why did you put all the saddles all the way up ?. Shouldn't it have been in the middle of the run so as to have or save regulation for both sides back and forth? Thank you very much....ah..I just read your answer to another guy noting the same thing.
In most cases, each string will intonate slightly longer than the actual scale length. If I were position the bridge with the saddles set at the middle of their adjustment range, there's a good chance the low e saddle will not be able to move back far enough to intonate.
Highline Guitars thank you very much.
@@HighlineGuitars , thank you! I made a guitar years ago and I did it the "middle" way (from a book that I found in the library) and the intonation ended up being at the very edge of travel. I'm attempting to make a new fender hardtail strat guitar now and I will use your method.
Exactly what i did, but i use the intonation for my bridge position Thanks Chriss :)
How do you intonate before fixing the bridge?
@@yoyeo1900 with my bridge locator
very nice !! thanks again !! :)
I thought it was measured off the twelfth fret not the centre. No wonder I fudged up :(
measure the whole scale length to double check .
i hope no guitar builder will kill me for this question;) does anyone know the intro-soundtrack?
Garage Band on the Mac. It comes with the program.
Highline Guitars lol thx, i kinda like it though :)
what about tune o matics
Roughly the same idea with the saddle portion of the tune-o-matic. Measure it strait and parallel with the neck then move the high E side of the bridge 3° towards the neck to allow proper travel for intonation of the higher strings. At least that's what I've read and seen in other videos
Exzellent
If given an odd scale, your ruler method wouldn’t work. You can only handle 25.5 scale installations
Wrong. You simply divide your odd scale length by 2 and that is how far back from the 12th fret you measure to determine the bridge position. You can alternatively measure the bridge position from the nut if you have a long enough ruler.
sometimes it better to show it to your viewers than just explaining it. center of 12th fret? pls use your video camera sir.
Think about where the string touches the fret, i,e, the very top of the fret (which is in the middle if the fret has been crowned properly).