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I was marking down bridge and pickups locations on my bass today, before to rout them. I bought a fender style neck, 20 frets, 34'' scale. So I take my straightedge and tape and mesure 34 inches from the nut, having in head the idea of the future compensation. 34'' brang me way down the body, almost. So I learned that fender announced scale are compensated scale (for the bigger string). So what's the best way to locate the bridge emplacement? I know there almost ½'' of possible ajustment on a electric bass bridge, so it's not critical, but, i want to make it right.

Thanks!
Francis

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

Others here have probably got more fancier ways of doing things, but what I do is mount the neck, take a measurement from the fingerboard side of the nut to the center of the 12th fret. Adjust the highest saddle(in the case of a 4 string, the G string) most of the way forward in it's travel(toward the nut),then place the bridge on the guitar and position it so that the distance from the center of the 12th fret to where the string will break over the G string's saddle is the same as the distance from the front of the nut to the 12th fret. That will get you into the ball park. The string will probably intonate a little farther back from that.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Or take a tape measure to the music store, if you have a good one nearby.
Make sure the Fender bass in the store plays in tune before you measure, though!

Cheers
John

That's assumimg the guitar he's building or the body he's got has the same neck pocket length and geometry of the Fender. If not, those measurements won't help much.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Thanks Mike, that's what i was thinking to do... mesure the real scale, put the bridge at his highest point, and them compensate... thanks1

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars