Official Luthiers Forum!

can i transfer the fret locations from the plan to the neck and still be accurate ,and would anyone know if the plans are dead accurate or not.

I would say no because of printing discrepancies.

Stewmac has slotted & radiused fingerboards for only $22 - which IMO is a pretty good deal when the raw board would typically run you at least $10.

Kevin Looker

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I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

Take out your calipers and a 35" rule(or metric equivalent) and check the plans.

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Mike

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

StewMac also has a great fretboard calculator that will work with any scale. It also gives you the location of the bridge much more accurately than you can get from the plans.

http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/Frettin ... tcalc.html

Holding a rule to plans printed on paper is a no-no but I see it happen all the time; even in some tutorials. In my trade I was taught never to do this. The main reason is that a sheet of paper can change its size dramatically, depending on humidity. My advice is to use the Stewmac fret calculator and the method of measuring from the previous fret AND the nut for each fret position that you scribe.

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I've got a mind like a steel......whatsername!!?

I've never heard of paper changing sizes "dramatically".

Hey, Jimmy,
Paper can, indeed, change quite a lot. It has always been a potential problem in print shops for multi-color printing. If they could lay down all the colors in a single pass on a multi-station press, then no problem. If they had to lay them down on four different passes, each on a different day, now THAT could have been a noticeable registration problem. The good shops always knew how to deal with it. I say this from more than 40 years experience designing for print. The short answer is "Yes, paper can move dramatically" (or let's say noticeably). In printing, if it's noticeable, then it's dramatic. If I were to do my take-offs from a printed plan, I would first ensure that the plan is absolutely flat (ironing it, if necessary). I would then check it for accuracy with a rule, calipers, etc. Then if that checked out, I would do my take-offs all on the same evening, because I work mostly at night. My results would probably be accurate in terms of intervals relative to each other, but the same plan might change from day to day. Not only that, but I might not be able to trust the fret line drawn on the plan. If it's wide enough to see, then how could I possibly find its absolute center? Lots of room for error there. Long story short: Confirm the intervals with conventional means.
Patrick

Get the SM Gibson rule: it has three short scales (24-3/4" variants) and a 25.4" long scale.
I have not figured out which short scale is best for intonation when a very low action is used on the guitar.
The long scale is progressively flatter past the 12th fret in my experience, but the length is close to a Fender scale.
I would never use a drawing copy to measure critical dimensions, paper is not stable and the printing process will not be exact.

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

Paper will react to humidity just like wood, probably even more so. If you are tying to nail tolorences, then the papers change in size will be drastic enough to throw you off.

Paper does vary with humidity, but it seems to stretch more than contract. I've never observed it getting smaller.

I do a lot of CAD work, and have been for, well, as long as CAD has been around. Before that, I did engineering drawings old school, so I've had some experience with paper.
When it comes off the plotter, it's usually within 0.3% of the correct value.
After a week or so, it's usually stretched 1-3% across the roll and 3-5% along the roll.
Yes, the stretch is different depending on how it comes off the roll.

These numbers are for average print paper, vellum is less. Polyester film (usually called mylar) is dimensionally stable, and does not stretch.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon