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How do these thing correlate?
What I mean is how do you maintain the 2 e strings at the same distance away from the edge of the fingerboard?

I’m trying to do a custom build and want to make sure all my measurements shake hands.

Thanks to anyone who can help
B


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'Rule of thumb' says fretboard width at 12th fret equals string spacing at the bridge. A cardboard dummy fingerboard sounds like a wonderful idea to test this. Need the nut with string positions to be either present or represented.

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Peter Havriluk

Get thee to the Cumpiano/Natelson book. It has a very precise method for drawing this out on paper before you start to build.

Space between the string and the finger board edge (what I refer to as “set back”) usually increases up the fretboard. You can use rules of thumb or copy the fingerboard specs of guitars you like. If you want to “see” how everything relates, the Excel sheet here might interest: https://www.mullinguitars.com/calculating-guitar-fret-spacing-fingerboard-dimensions-and-string-setback.html


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Here's how I do it....

I make the fretboard with whatever taper I decide on, then I temporarily attach the neck

Then I use a straight edge and set it in by the amount I want he low E and high E to be from the edge of the fretboard,(typically 1/8") and extend those lines to where the bridge will land and that gives me the exact spacing at the bridge.

Agreed on drawing it out. If you don’t have the SM string spacing rule that can help with the nut end. Set your edges (3mm in or whatever) and mark the rest. That gets one end taken care of.


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The fretboard width at 12th fret equals string spacing at the bridge rule of thumb works well, but the best way to be sure you end up with what you want is to draw it out full scale. As mentioned above, the Cumpiano book has a very good section on how to do that.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

This is my approach too, quick and easy.

The question though for the OP is are you building to a spec? There are typically standard string spacing at the bridge and often times customers will want to stick to those. So for example I am building two Martin OM copy guitars now, the fretboard at the 12th is 2 1/4in and the spacing at the bridge is 2 5/16th. I don't really have a *choice in what the spacing is. So in that case you just have to find the middle point of the bridge and match it up to the center line of the fretboard. In any case I still line it up as Brad outlines above.

Around one half of the nuts that we make may be for reasons that the original nut was not right for the specific player. For example it's very common for our clients to request that a new nut be made with the low e closer to the fretboard edge than the high e. Thumb over low e players and I'm one too and my own guitars when I've replaced a nut are set-up this way. Clapton does this, Carlos too.

Another reason for nut replacements that we do is the spacing is too narrow for a specific player.

I'm bringing this up because so far what I've read here is consideration for and a desire to have a spec or method to determine the distance from the e's to the fret board edge. If that's what you want and you are building acoustics mimic Martin they have it together.

I'll add that on vintage stuff particularly g*bsons g*bson rolled the edges of the fretboard making any spec irreverent in so much as if the string is too close to the edge that rolled edge will want to help the fretted note slide off the fretboard.

So with all this said the original advice that I got way back in the day from Dan E. and what he does and says he does in his books is set the outer e spacing as a function of the neck, fretboard, specific player, playing style if known etc. Dan is not measuring anything nor are we. It's visually done with consideration for al that I've mentioned.

I paid off my mortgage because the nut that came on guitars were not worth keeping according to our clients. As such I would encourage anyone here who wants to get this right to not rigidly subscribe to any spec but to be open minded to player needs, wants, the guitar that you have in front of you and what would work best on it, etc. And it you must have a spec again Martin knows what's happening and has for over 100 years now.

Exactly, Hesh...

This is why I start with the two E strings from the edge and work from there.

Really with this method theoretically you don't have to use any numbers... just your eye and a divider.

To your point about some players wanting the low E closer to the edge, (as you know) classical players want the high E much farther from the edge of the fretboard.

I think the OP is talking about the spacing at the bridge particularly. That's the only way you are going to get the two E strings to be equally spaced along the FB edge. I've almost never built a custom guitar where the spacing at the bridge was not specified first. Once that is set then the bridge has to be placed such that the requirement for the lay of the strings over the FB is met. In most cases it seems people like equidistant but many like to have a bit more room on the High E with low E pushed to the edge. I've even done one the opposite for someone once.

You can do it that way as well, you just need to start at the bridge spacing, then decide on the distance to the edge of the fretboard and the nut width and that will give you the fretboard taper.

Of course that has already been worked out as standards by different people/companies, which is where we started...