Can't find fret cutting guide for baritone 19-1/4 in scale

I'm converting a baritone ukulele to a resonator baritone ukulele. Before I did the surgery I measured everything. The scale length is 19-1/4
inches, ~488mm. The fingerboard is a piece of plywood with 4 layers. I'd like to replace it with a solid wood fingerboard.

I can't find a fretting guide for this scale length, just a 19 inch scale length. Would a 19" scale Guage be the correct one to use?

Thank you,

Ed T.

Go here https://www.stewmac.com/FretCalculator. Also, you will need to learn about compensation.

You may need to print your own
http://www.ekips.org/tools/guitar/fretfind2d/
Or measure using a fret calculator
https://www.stewmac.com/FretCalculator
Be careful printing out the PDF created by fretfind2d my copy of acrobat reader defaults to fit to page which shrinks it.
Read up about intonation and compensation too and for the love of sanity work in mm.

You could also use a longer scale and chop off a fret (or more)

What did you measure that was 19 1/4" or did you calculate it? If the scale length was say 19" then in fact there is nothing that's 19" to measure. These are nominal scale lengths and the actual scale length is ALWAYS longer than the nominal scale length. See the stewmac reference.

Let me add a bit more. Measure from the front of the nut to the middle of the 12th fret. Multiply that by 2. That is the scale length. The extra distance past double the scale length, from the nut to the middle of the saddle, will include the necessary compensation so it plays in tune when fretted.

Uke Don said:

Let me add a bit more. Measure from the front of the nut to the middle of the 12th fret. Multiply that by 2. That is the scale length. The extra distance past double the scale length, from the nut to the middle of the saddle, will include the necessary compensation so it plays in tune when fretted.

Click to expand...

Well that works as long as the nut is in the right place. My experience is that the nut isn't always in the right place. Actually its often in the wrong place. Sometimes it may have been expertly compensated which is great except if you measure it blind it will lead you astray.

Its complicated.

If you REALY want to know whats going on you need to establish the scale length of the frets independently of the saddle AND the nut. This is easier if you have a trusted source of information on that particular instrument. I've used the stewmac calculator and vernier callipers before but this isn't easy either.

You take an educated guess at the scale length, enter the data into the stewmac calculator, calculate a distance from the FIRST fret to however far your callipers can reach and then carefully see if it lines up from centre of the fret to centre of the fret (not easy). Try some other slightly different scale lengths, repeat, and see if thats better or worse.

Its not an easy thing to do blind.

anthonyg said:

What did you measure that was 19 1/4" or did you calculate it? If the scale length was say 19" then in fact there is nothing that's 19" to measure. These are nominal scale lengths and the actual scale length is ALWAYS longer than the nominal scale length. See the stewmac reference.

Click to expand...

I measured the scale length with the uke still in playing setup. I measured from the front of the nut to the center of the saddle. So I think I'm working backwards and reverse engineering the scale length.

I will measure the distance from the front of the nut to the center of the 12th fret and double the figure to get they base scale length.

I will just use the existing fretted fingerboard. The resonator saddle groove on the biscuit is routed off center and the saddle is wide, so rotating the biscuit and how the saddle is filed gives me a lot of leeway as to compensation.

Thanks all,

Ed T.

Edspyhill05 said:

I measured the scale length with the uke still in playing setup. I measured from the front of the nut to the center of the saddle.
Thanks all,

Ed T.

Click to expand...

OK, you have measured the ACTUAL scale length of the instrument. For the purposes of the fretting you need to know the NOMINAL scale length which is shorter than the actual scale length.

Try doubling the distance from inside the nut to the centre f the 12th fret and see what you get. Try measuring in both inches and mm and see which is closer to a round number.

Remember the scale length should be defined by the distance between where the nut is and where the center of the cone finishes up. Putting the bridge where the old fretboard says it should be is likely to end in tears unless that is by wild coincidence right.

Thanks to all for the information and advice.

The scale measures 242mm + 242mm = 484mm. My original measurement from front of nut to center of saddle was 488mm. The biscuit and new saddle allows me to lengthen the string length for compensation of string intonation.

Measuring in inches is 19-1/64". (???) So compensation would add 1/8". Seems safer to use mm.

So I'm getting closer. I should have the resonator on in about 3 weeks,

Thanks all,

Ed T.

Edspyhill05 said:

Thanks to all for the information and advice.

The scale measures 242mm + 242mm = 484mm. My original measurement from front of nut to center of saddle was 488mm. The biscuit and new saddle allows me to lengthen the string length for compensation of string intonation.

Measuring in inches is 19-1/64". (???) So compensation would add 1/8". Seems safer to use mm.

So I'm getting closer. I should have the resonator on in about 3 weeks,

Thanks all,

Ed T.

Click to expand...

My suspicion is that it actually is a 19" scale instrument with a 1/64" error in the nut placement. This is a scenario that I have seen often. If the instrument has enough saddle compensation to compensate for the error as well then it can work out although I would expect that the intonation in the open position to be sharp before it gets better up the neck.

If I was going to redo the fret slots then I would go for a 19" scale length and reposition the nut so that its in the right place.

Actually, repositioning the nut is probably advisable anyway if your keeping the current slotting.

Was it playing in tune up the neck originally? If so you could use the old fingerboard as a template for a new board. I just finished converting an acoustic guitar into a resonator guitar. A makeshift compass with the center in the middle of the saddle slot and a pencil on the other end should put your cone in the right place. If the slot is not in the middle of the biscuit just make a new biscuit.

Some good advice here, with due stress on the difference between nominal and actual scale length. I prefer the terms scale length and string length to separate them, as it’s more obvious to me what I’m talking about. (String length is of course actual scale length.)