How do you measure a scale length ?

[edo]

:>

I think that this is a stupid question, but hey I'll still ask it to you, guys...
I've got two guitars sitting in front of my face right now. *One is a Fender '57 and the other is an Ibanez PGM300 and while both guitars was stated to have a 25.5 scale but when I'm trying to measure the scale, it comes out differently. *

How do you measure a scale length ( From ... to ... ) :
a. On a guitar with locking nut ( Floyd Rose Tremolo )
b. On a guitar with vintage tremolo
c. On a guitar with stop tail/tune-o-matic bridge

Regards,
Edo

[darren wilson]

Good question!

Because of the variable position of the bridge saddles to achieve correct intonation, measuring the full length of the string will invariably give you different measurements for each string.

In my estimation, the best way to measure a guitar's scale length is to measure from the nut (right where the string breaks over the edge of the fretboard) to the middle of the crown of the 12th fret, then multiply by 2.

[iain]

The only scale I know of is the pentatonic, and that is 5 long

[ellsobrien]

D'Adarrio has a good page on figuring out the scale for bass gtrs. I guess it would be the same for a gtr.
Check it out.

http://www.daddario.com/guitartips/dawbbass.htm

Hope this helps.

[Jimi D]

here's something for the Things That Make You Go Hmmmmm... I read an interesting article in an old (like 1996) issue of Guitar Techniques (Brit mag) that had the author measuring "actual" scale length on a number of guitars and comparing it to the manufacturer's declared specs. It was amazing that a> most of the specs were inaccurate, and b> many of them were off by A LOT! I mean, you can feel the difference between a Les Paul's 24.75" scale length and the 25.5" scale length of a Strat, and some of these differentiations from spec were well over .5"! I'd think you could feel the difference between the declared and actual scale lengths...

[jay ratkowski]

The way the Fender and Ibanez machines pump out guitars... chances are the scale lengths remain constant... but more likely than not, they just round the number off for simplicity. *At least, that's my guess...