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This convention of 12 the fret to string spacing works well for "normal" spacings at the nut. I made a guitar for a woman who has small hands, and thus a nut width of only 1.5 inches. Since what I normally do is use a FB end of 2 5/16 for my normal sized guitars, I did the same here ... with a saddle spacing of 55-56 mm (I know I mix measuring conventions up here, but thats the std in use by Laskin and Larrivee) if I had used this as the 12th fret width, the end of the FB would have been way huge (plus its a 24.9, which again makes it wider than if it were 25.4 as the 12th is closer to the narrower nut) ... anyway, glad I didnt do it that way ....

For the most part, if you add 5mm to the FB end in addition to the saddle spacing, it works out pretty well, no matter what the nut spacing. I find I am usually a mm narrower at the 12th than if I use the saddle spacing to determine the FB taper... and there is still plenty of FB outside the strings to prevent pulloff while playing.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Thanks, Howard. That makes sense to me. I don't know if that's the convention, or not.

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Waddy

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