3 string slide guitar

Step 3 Fret markers

to get an accurate set of fret marks you will need to use a fret calculator.
here is a great online one
http://www.buildyourguitar.com/resources/fretcalc/jscrptclc.htm
while your there check out the whole site its great for do it yourself guitars
be very careful to properly mark the frets then if you want you can cut them in with a fretsaw {i used a hacksaw} and you can fill the shallow cuts with white paint or bits of brass wire or leave them empty like i did

Comments

[mdog93]

so if your making a guitar does the length from the nut to the bridge have to be exactly the same for every guitar or could you shorten it if you didn't have enough space?

[plutopia]

You can shorten it a little, but to be able to tune the guitar at the same pitch you'd then have to reduce the tension on the strings. Struings have an optimum tension, and if it gets too low the soudn goes off and eventually the string starts to just flop about. That's why a uke is tuned an octave higher than a regular guitar, because its scale is half the length. So within limits you can do it, but not too far.

[arcane2rox]

You are absolutely correct plutopia. The word used to describe the 12th fret  being the octave of the open string (so on and so forth) is called intonation.

[lennyb]

best thing to do if your building the neck too or if you need to shorten a guitar you can recalculate and reposition the frets to match it up but the positioning must be precise or the guitar will never tune up ie the 12th fret must be midway between the nut and bridge.
just slappin the bridge on there anywhere without measuring will not work very well.if you have a neck already just measure from the nut to the 12th fret then measure from the 12th fret down the same distance and the bridge must go there,
if your making your neck and the space is limited use an online fret calculater and get the spacings .
you can find one here    http://www.buildyourguitar.com/resources/fretcalc/index.htm
enjoy

[mdog93]

Ok well the amount i meant was off the top of my head around 10 cm not over, but im guessing that's too much. And just out of interest what do they do on a 3/4 length guitar then do they keep the length of the strings the same but alter the body size or something? cheers mdog

[lennyb]

a 3/4 length guitar has a scale 3/4 as long as a standard 26 inch. the tension should be almost the same and the frets just get closer together. you can make the fretboard / scale almost any length but as mdog says the pitch will go higher{thats kinda why a bass is longer than a six string} if you pass a certain length then the strings get thinner and you have a uke and the body is usually smaller too

[lennyb]

sorry i meant as plutopia said

[ClemensY290]

ok this probably applies to this as does with real guitars the space from the nut to the 12th fret has to be the EXACT as the length from the 12th fret to the bridge aka the little moveable sadles they have on bridges, that way you can exact the distance

[lennyb]

quite true. all guitars have the 12th fret at the exact midpoint. no exceptions{that i know of} if you know the formula it is possible to work out where they all go. but i use a fret calculator because im bad at math.

[freewheeler]

hahaha...fret calculator....lucky dog,when i made my first guitar,i tuned the 1st string on E,then fretted notes on my real guitar,and by placing a bottleneck on the strings of my guitar,until i got the same notes as those from the original.then i marked those places and fixed frets.

[lennyb]

heh heh now thats doing it the hard way man. i dont think id have thought of doing it that way.and i doubt my ear is good enogh to do it right.

[freewheeler]

i like your way better!!