Fret Slotting Jig (3/3) ~ Luthiery Laboratories

Fret Slotting Jig (3/3)

Here is a spreadsheet of fret positions, mainly Fender, but others also:

StewMac has an online fret position calculator: https://www.stewmac.com/FretCalculator

The mathematical formula is:

where

x = fret distance from inside of nut
S = scale length
n = fret number ( 0 = nut, 12 = octave )

I actually used a caliper accurate to thousandths of an inch to mark the locations, and pre-punched them with a new sharp punch prior to drilling. I probably got an accuracy of under 1/100", which is fine for a fretted instrument on which all tuning is approximate anyway.

Two spots you can know with good accuracy are the nut ( 0" ) and the octave ( 1/2 scale length ). Working in both directions from those datums, you can cover almost the entire neck with direct measurements using a 6" caliper.

All these measurements are typically done in inches, but there is no reason you could not use millimeters or barleycorns or cubits or any other silly system.

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Building Bodies

My take on bodies

An electric guitar body serves several purposes. It provides a place to attach (and hide) hardware and electronics, and provides a counterweight for the neck, specifically the tuners out there at the end. It also provides enough weight and bulk to stabilize the instrument while it is played, either sitting or standing, while at the same time being not too heavy or interfering with natural playing motions and access to the strings. And needless to say, it must be strong enough to resist the effects of string tension, which can be 100-200 pounds or more.

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