lomitis here is a easy way to understand it from the Stew Mac site. It explanes why saddles are adjustable or on angles. This is uses a acoustic examble but you will get the jist.

A guitar’s scale length is calculated by measuring the distance from the front edge of the nut, where it butts against the end of the fingerboard, to the center of the 12th (octave) fret, then doubling that measurement.

If your 1930's Gibson L-OO, for example, measures 12-3/8" at the 12th fret, then your guitar’s scale length is twice that — a 24-3/4" scale. For good intonation, the guitar’s saddle will be placed so a little extra string length is added. This extra length is called “compensation,” and it means the actual string length is longer than its 24-3/4” scale measurement. At the center of the saddle it will be closer to 24-7/8". Compensation varies for different strings, and that’s why your saddle is placed at an angle

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Ok...just for reference, the instrument I'm working on is a tele clone, but as I stated before, it's not quite a full size clone. Bigger than 3/4's but smaller than full size. Now after re-measuring things today, the scale length is definitely off. From the nut to the 12th fret it measures out at 12 2/8" which would make it a 24 1/2" scale length...which, unfortunately put's it (the neck) just over half an inch short.

I thought I had allowed for the difference in scale length when I cut this new body. Where I think I screwed up was with the parts themselves...I'm using full sized tele parts on this thing which apparently pushed the bridge and everything back just a bit. It's possible the original body was just off as well...I measured things to the original body and rather foolishly assumed it was correct but I haven't double checked that yet...I may have just matched things to a body that was already screwed up to begin with.

At this point I will have to get a different neck for this body...probably a full sized tele neck should work but I'll have to get some measurements first. Once I get a new neck I'll slap it together and see how this red oak body sounds...if it's decent I'll go ahead and finish it and I have a lot more of this wood out in the garage so I can always try to cut another body for this Rhythmline neck (taking the proper scale length into account next time). If it ends up sounding like complete crap, well...I can always use more firewood! LOL!!!




In fact, this was the very first thing I did. I drug a couple of my Strats upstairs and put them to the measuring tape. Since this tele I'm working on though is such a bastard size, I really wanted to get a second (and third and forth) opinion to make sure I was measuring things correctly. To be honest I also have a bunch of this info in my "How To Build an Electric Guitar" by Melvin Hiscock and I did consult that as well but I wasn't finding the specific piece of info that I was looking for which Ceri provided.




Ceri,
Again thank you...that was in fact the exact information I was looking for. Everyone here kept reiterating the same information, "from the breaking point of the nut to the saddles" but no one had said the high E string. The rest of that in regards to string gauge and "other factors" also makes perfect sense to me as well....hence why when a person chances string gauges for example, they also need to change the set up and adjust the intonation. I always knew that needed to be done, but now I know why it needs to be done .



Anyways this project is back on hold for the moment until I can come up with a proper neck for it. Again I'll have to check some measurements but I'm almost willing to bet that a full size tele neck should work on this thing...basically it will be a full size tele with a slightly smaller body when it's finally done. For now I have a couple of other projects to keep me busy anyways. I still need to come up with a 12 string neck for one project, I'll need a new neck for this project and I need a neck for a bass project my wife is working on. I also have another idea I'm stewing with too...but I'll save that one for later .

Thanks to all for your input...I'm most grateful!

Hi Jim: what a complicated problem - very interesting!

Maybe too late on this one, but a good way around the issue is to position the bridge to the neck, not the other way around. Build a well fitting neck pocket and get the neck installed in it. Then set about finding the correct place for the bridge both lengthways and side-to-side.

If it is a Strat type trem then you can take the block off so's to be able to slide it around on the flat surface of the guitar to find the spot. Easier with a Tele bridge. Either way, be sure to have the saddles set well forward, so that once the bridge is installed there's plenty of rearwards travel to them. (The problems we've heard about on the Forum with folks who can't make their saddles go back far enough to intonate...)

Then make your marks and drill / route accordingly. Kind of an "analog" method of working.

Martin Koch has a tidy way of going about it, page 171 of his book, Building Electric Guitars. I like his method of finding the right side-to-side placement, too. His book is often rather home-spun, but it's full of good ideas that he's come up with from approaching realworld problems logically.

BTW: out of sheer curiosity, how'd you come by a non-standard sized Tele neck...?

Cheers - C

Well, that's essentially what I did. It's actually been a while since I cut this body but basically (as I remember it) I had cut the neck pocket, fit the neck and then I though I had figured the bridge and pickup placement based on the original body. There's where I'm not sure about things...I'm not sure if I messed up or of the original was just off. Either way, I think another part of this is that not only were the neck and body on the original tele smaller...I'm thinking the pickguard and bridge were too...enough to count for the 1/2".



I will check out the reference you suggest but I think I got it now. Anything else I would be doing at this point would be full size so I would have "models" to work from. It was just this one oddball piece that I've been having the problems with.



Well, as I stated originally, I had gotten this guitar...a Rhythmline Tele clone, some 20 odd years ago. I had picked it up at a local music store for $75...hey...it looked like a guitar anyways! LOL!!! At the time I bought it, I really didn't know that much about guitars...I had only been playing for maybe a year or so really. Anyways, as I said before the body was a serious piece of crap on this thing...wasn't even a decent piece of plywood really. For many years I've used the body as a practice piece to practice learning how to do finishes and such...I figure I'll make an end table or a clock out of it eventually, but the neck is actually pretty decent...despite being a slightly odd size. Anyways, that's the story...I bought it as is, it was a slightly small instrument and a real odd ball to begin with...I'm just trying to save an otherwise decent and usable neck but because of it being a smaller neck, I can't just slap it on any guitar body.