Hi guys have not been on for a while had knee replacement.Anyway,my american strat has a scale lenght of 25 1/2,either mine is off or iam measureing it wrong.It says from the front of the nut centered between the G & D strings to the bridge saddles right down the middle will give you this.Also you may have to compensate 1/8th to 3 16th plus or minus 1/32".Is the correct?.This is a stuped question the front of the nut is it faceing the headstock or the body?Either way doing this that way brings me maybe 1/8 or a 16th diffrence,like it said about the compensating that much.So does it sound iam doing this correctly?Also,ive always setup my rig myself correctly with stock strings 9-42 sb lights,now id like to get the Robin Trower sound blues of the 70s and 80s.He used slinky 10 13 17 26 36 46 and that what i want to put on.My question is changeing string puts the intonation out,i know how to set that but ive read to string the rig and pre intonate the saddles back farther than needed so when you set the intonation later on you will need to move the saddles forward,leaving any kink out. Stupid again question,moveing the saddles to the back is in the direction to the back of body or the tail i call it?Is this correct?Sorry guys for all the questions and some are stupid, just trying to learn how to setup diffrent ways.Thank You all ahead for the help guys.

Moving the saddle forward is toward the nut or headstock (shortening the string). Moving the saddle back is away from the nut or headstock (Lengthening the string) The 25 1/2" is measured from the inside of the nut (fingerboard side) to the middle of the treble E saddle.

Thank you so much.I just about on,about 1/16 to 1/8 off at most.In my Stew M repair and setup book it says you may compensate up to 1/8 to 3 16th to prevent string kinking so i guess iam ok.
Thanks for the info on the movement direction also.Great help.
Thank You Again.
Mark.

The correct way to measure scale length is from the nut to the 12fret, then double that measurement. The only accurate way to set intonation is by ear or an expensive strobe tuner.

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