Bridge Question

[Ophir]

Hi everyone. Havent been here for awhile. I've been overseas and just got back.
Just a question here guys regarding bridge placement for intonation. I made up a bridge of 1/2 inch round stainless steel and it has a small plate attached for strings to load. I noticed that the strings from where they load behind the bridge. touch the round rod bridge, just a tad behind the centreline of the bridge. So my question is, will this effect intonation? Hope I am explaining this properly. From the nut, the string will touch the centreline of the round rod I will use for nut. From the centreline of the nut, I have cut 1/4 inch off top of fretboad so that from centreline of round nut to first fret is perfect accurate distance. Now if I place the bridge with the centreline of the 1/2 inch rod i am using for bridge, 1/2 scale distance from 12th fret, will intonation be pretty accurate even though strings will sort of come up near back of bridge (rod) and then go over top of round rod bridge?

[richard37066]

If I understand correctly then the answer is a simple one. The scale length will be the distance between the exact centers of the round rods. It is at the center of the rod where the string is "stopped" - establishing a point along a fine line. Think of a pedal steel changer. Although the radius of the finger is much larger, the vibration of the string ends at the point where the string leaves the arc of the finger - a fine, imaginary line running the width of the changer. As has been stated elsewhere, a fretboard is nothing more than a guide to where the bar must be placed. One's ear makes the adjustment - compensates for the parallax problem - for near-perfect intonation regardless of whether the actual scale length is off ± a smidgen. Just do your best at establishing the end points which define the scale length. All will end well. Ya don't have to break out in a dripping sweat over this one.

Richard

[Bent]

Ophir, heed Richard's words. I endorse it fully. Think about it...it makes sense

[Ophir]

Thanks Richard and Bent. That's what I thought. Just needed to have it confirmed from clever guys like you guys.

[Dave-M]

Look at a cheap Spanish guitar and use the same bridge angle offsets between the 2-octave root notes of your tuning as are on string 1 and string 6 on the Spanish, about 3/32 inch.

I would think the scale length would be measured at the center of the bridge, with bass being longer and treble being shorter by 3/64ths.

This is just my opinion, and I may be wrong. Try it out with your tuner, at open, fret 12, and fret 24, and adjust it as you see fit.

The weight of your hand and the bar alter the bass strings more than the treble strings anyway. I usually hold the bar at a slight angle to compensate (sort of 1 o'clock to 7 o'clock position, but more like 12:15 to 06:15).

[Ophir]

Thanks for your comments Dave-M