Trig

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hemant123

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Just curious guys, is trigonometry used in making Ukuleles?
 
I've used it on radii dishes and dovetail joints..Mainly on jig making ..But it's not needed in general.
 
maclay said:
I've never taken a trigonometry course in my life, and don't know a damn thing about it. I'm sure it could come in handy, but you don't need it.
You just need to be able to add, subtract, and convert fractions.
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It is a proven fact, 3 out 2 people can't do fractions.
 
Oddly enough, I was using trig just a few days ago to figure out a headstock angle. I want to experiment with some slight angled headstocks.

The headstock that I want will slope down .25 inches over 3.5 inches. To find the angle of this slope, you use the inverse tangent function.

arctangent(.25/3.5) = 4.086°

A headstock angle of 4 degrees isn’t very steep, but it is used by Brian May and Guild guitars. Hopefully it will work for my build as well.
 
Agree with Pete. Way too shallow. The string doesn't break enough over the nut, has less downward tension, so it vibrates in the slot and buzzes. The reason May gets away with it is because he uses a zero fret or a locking nut. The reason that it works on Teles and such is because they have string trees. I used to use a 12.5 degree angle, to get a better yield from my neck blank, but recently went back to a 15 degree. Players were pushing the strings out of the slots which then required a taller nut with deeper slots.
 
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thistle3585 said:
I used to use a 12.5 degree angle, to get a better yield from my neck blank, but recently went back to a 15 degree.
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Is 15 degrees the normal headstock angle? Isn’t that pretty standard for a regular (non-slotted) headstock?
 
DanielHulbert said:
Is 15 degrees the normal headstock angle? Isn’t that pretty standard for a regular (non-slotted) headstock?
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I use 15 because that is what I used on mandolins that I build. Gibson guitars used either a 16 or 17.5 depending on the instrument. I don't know the angle for a slotted headstock, but I'd suspect that it could have a lesser angle because the angle that matters is the one from the nut to the tuner since the tuner post is below the headstock face.
 
Mandarb said:
47% of people surveyed don't believe in surveys.
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And 86.3% of statistics are made up on the spot!

BTW, what is trig? ;)

I'm sure it could be useful for all sorts of things, but generally speaking I don't think it is needed.
 
Trig as in Trigonometry, it's a branch of Maths which deals with angles and triangles; Used a heck of a lot e.g. in GPS, architecture, construction and so on.
 
My paddle head stock angle is 14 degrees, and the slot heads are 9 degrees. As Andrew said, it's the angle the string takes to the tuner that counts, so on a slot head the tuner is deeper in the head stock and you are back at that similar angle as in a paddle head.
 
So, if someone wanted a headstock angle of 15°, the headstock would have to lose 1.25 inches over 4.5 inches.

arctangent (1.25/4.5) = 15.52°

(I was mainly thinking about using the lower angle to be able to use thinner wood, but it sounds like I might not get good results.)
 
DanielHulbert said:
(I was mainly thinking about using the lower angle to be able to use thinner wood, but it sounds like I might not get good results.)
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That's why I went to a shallower angle but it just didn't work for me. I even did it on a steel string which has more tension, so I can't imagine how it would work on a nylon string. IMHO, I'd rather have it cost more on the front end by using a bit more material then having to scrap a neck and starting over after having completed the instrument.
 
One handy use for trig is cutting angles for purflings or rosettes. I had to make 11.25deg cuts for a 16piece rosette. My table saw miter gauge is crap but I have a good set of calipers. 11.25deg worked out to 2.88" over 11". I cut that on a standard A-size sheet of paper and used it to set the miter. Much easier to measure 2.88" than 11.25deg with my equipment.

Miter.jpg
 
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