If a tele had 24 frets

  • Thread starter Newbcaster
  • Start date
  • This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links like Ebay, Amazon, and others.

Newbcaster

Tele-Afflicted
Joined
May 10, 2015
Posts
1,071
Age
51
Location
Gilbert
how wide would a tele neck be if it had 24 frets, 25.5 scale?

What is the nut width?
what is the end width?
width at 24th?
 

ctmullins

Tele-Afflicted
Joined
Sep 9, 2018
Posts
1,138
Location
MS Gulf Coast
Is this a trick question?

Whatever width is correct for the bridge string spacing.

If you have a bridge already, then you know the spacing, and you can do a bit of simple geometry to get your desired neck width.
 

Newbcaster

Tele-Afflicted
Joined
May 10, 2015
Posts
1,071
Age
51
Location
Gilbert
Is this a trick question?

Whatever width is correct for the bridge string spacing.

If you have a bridge already, then you know the spacing, and you can do a bit of simple geometry to get your desired neck width.
I have a fender standard strat bridge. I was just wondering if anyone knew off the top of their head. I don't think fret 2 find actually tells me this as a point of datum.
 

Peegoo

Telefied
Ad Free Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2019
Posts
31,576
Location
Beast of Bourbon
@Newbcaster

The nut width would not change. The neck's total length would increase by ~18.8% of the remaining scale distance for every additional fret on the neck, measured from the preceding fret. Ref: see the "rule of 18."

The biggest effect of a 24 fret neck on a Tele would probably be pushing the neck pickup's location toward the bridge. That does change the tone a bit--especially when playing position 2 on the switch.
 

hemingway

Doctor of Teleocity
Joined
Mar 14, 2012
Posts
12,356
Location
London, UK
@Newbcaster

The nut width would not change. The neck's total length would increase by ~18.8% of the remaining scale distance for every additional fret on the neck, measured from the preceding fret. Ref: see the "rule of 18."

The biggest effect of a 24 fret neck on a Tele would probably be pushing the neck pickup's location toward the bridge. That does change the tone a bit--especially when playing position 2 on the switch.
Just done a quick measurement on my tele and a 24-fret guitar. It would move the neck pickup back about 1 cm, which I don't think would change the tone at all.
 

Moodivarius

Tele-Afflicted
Silver Supporter
Joined
Feb 11, 2019
Posts
1,498
Location
Northwest Ontario
I built this guitar for my son's buddy last winter.

An HH offset, 25.5” scale, 24 fret.

The nut width standard, & neck pocket size standard. Hipshot hardtail bridge.
The neck ended up to be about 3/4” longer than standard, 21 fret, which puts the nut a bit further from the body, compared to standard, & moves the bridge closer to the neck pocket. So a little less room for pickups, between the heel of the neck & bridge.

8E01CA1A-1BB4-41B3-A6F2-F8454F0F5DAE.jpeg



6A106B09-076F-4EE5-A93B-6BBF46AC1AB6.jpeg



2E159237-AF93-42DD-9DAC-177E86C499F9.jpeg



D9B16D22-23A0-433B-BD67-BF428741BA36.jpeg



10B43E4D-180A-4DE5-A3B5-A4248D446DF0.jpeg



0E0968D6-A0AA-4522-882D-067DD9617E9B.jpeg


Comparing to the Jazzmaster 22 fret, I built.
9125DFBF-1E0B-4D08-AC20-95ABE9EEE74C.jpeg


Here is the thread of the complete build.

Offset Build 25.5” scale & 24 fret





Scott
 
Last edited:

eallen

Friend of Leo's
Joined
Jul 30, 2013
Posts
4,344
Location
Bargersville/Indianapolis, Indiana
It doesn't change any width. It only makes the neck longer to accommodate the extra frets and moves the pickup location to accommodate. One question is what do you need to do to the lower cutout area to make the added frets reachable, which is also no big deal.

Scott has a great example!
 

Newbcaster

Tele-Afflicted
Joined
May 10, 2015
Posts
1,071
Age
51
Location
Gilbert
I built this guitar for my son's buddy last winter.

An HH offset, 25.5” scale, 24 fret.

The nut width standard, & neck pocket size standard. Hipshot hardtail bridge.
The neck ended up to be about 3/4” longer than standard, 21 fret, which puts the nut a bit further from the body, compared to standard, & moves the bridge closer to the neck pocket. So a little less room for pickups, between the heel of the neck & bridge.

View attachment 1307895


View attachment 1307896


View attachment 1307897


View attachment 1307901


View attachment 1307902


View attachment 1307903

Comparing to the Jazzmaster 22 fret, I built.
View attachment 1307904

Here is the thread of the complete build.

Offset Build 25.5” scale & 24 fret





Scott
What was the width of the fretboard at the 24th and at the end of fretboard?
 

Freeman Keller

Doctor of Teleocity
Ad Free Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2018
Posts
15,880
Age
80
Location
Washington
Its just high school geometry but its still a little tricky laying it out. The nut width remains at 1.6875, the 16th fret is still 3.135 and is 15.380 inches from the nut, the 24th fret is 19.125 from the nut and you can find the width by either right triangles or my laying it out with pencil and paper. If you need a neck drawing to work from shoot me an e-mail addy and I'll send you a pdf.
 

telemnemonics

Telefied
Ad Free Member
Joined
Mar 2, 2010
Posts
42,414
Age
65
Location
Asheville NC
Why do you ask?
You can buy 24 fret necks with only the fingerboard extended so the fit to the body is the same as 21/22.

Each individual neck varies a bit even among Fender brand 21/22.

I prefer a 1 11/16” nut which technically makes the 22nd fret one iota narrower.

You will not succeed if making a body for a 24 fret neck you have not seen or spec’d hoping our comments will tell you the dimensions the neck pocket should be for a good fit.
It may be the same or bigger or smaller.
 

Newbcaster

Tele-Afflicted
Joined
May 10, 2015
Posts
1,071
Age
51
Location
Gilbert
Why do you ask?
You can buy 24 fret necks with only the fingerboard extended so the fit to the body is the same as 21/22.

Each individual neck varies a bit even among Fender brand 21/22.

I prefer a 1 11/16” nut which technically makes the 22nd fret one iota narrower.

You will not succeed if making a body for a 24 fret neck you have not seen or spec’d hoping our comments will tell you the dimensions the neck pocket should be for a good fit.
It may be the same or bigger or smaller.
All good points
The same as it is on a 21 fret guitar. The neck route is the same, which works with the standard bridge.








Scott
But isn't the fretboard trapezoidal?
 

Freeman Keller

Doctor of Teleocity
Ad Free Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2018
Posts
15,880
Age
80
Location
Washington
All good points

But isn't the fretboard trapezoidal?
Technically it is with the parallel sides (the "bases") being the nut and last fret. We don't think of it as a trapezoid because the bases are so short compared to the legs but it is.

(Assuming we aren't talking about something wonky like this)

20240913_155255.jpg
 

Mojotron

Poster Extraordinaire
Joined
Dec 21, 2008
Posts
5,875
Location
Seattle
All the way through the 1990's I played super-strats type guitars with 24 frets and as a guitarist I came to believe that the concept of a desire for 24 frets is logical, but even if the frets were accessible, 22 frets were all that I really wanted. The 2 main reasons were that the 23rd and 24th frets never get used, while in the keys that I play in have me reaching for notes on the e and b strings on the 22nd fret fairly often: The 2nd reason was that the neck pickup has to get moved towards the bridge and that makes it hard for neck pickups to have the same tone in the neck position. The tonal difference is relatively minor, but I think it's a totally unnecessary inconvenience.

So, What I did was to make the neck 2-1/4" thick at the heel and design the neck to be about .2" longer than a 21 fret neck to fit the 22nd fret in while preserving the normal heel end of the Tele neck and then to move the whole pocket back about .2" and steal that space from the gap between the end of the heel and the front edge of the neck pickup route... So, the pickup location is the same on Tele and Strat pickup in ss/sss/hh and hsh pickup layouts... I also use the Ibanez AANJ neck joint and make the lower bout a a tiny little bit deeper to be able to use the 22nd fret: The end result feels familiar and has all of the functionality of the extended length of the neck that can actually be used without any fret access issues.

1736712752878.png


1736712785556.png


I think from a design perspective as a guitarist, people give up too much for the 23rd and 24th frets on most guitar designs. I found the exception to that is a design like the Steinberger - which is totally different in every way.
 

epizootics

Tele-Holic
Joined
Feb 11, 2017
Posts
534
Age
37
Location
Lyon, France
Two weeks later but I thought I'd chime in?
For all intents and purposes, and disregarding the aesthetics, this is a Telecaster with 24 frets:

53299760541_9b3e19f151_c.jpg


53300133944_e4cdb3db0d_c.jpg


Looking at my CAD blueprints, nut width is 1.614" (41mm) with a 1.334" string spacing (34mm) ; with a 2.126" string spacing at the bridge (54mm, a simple Gotoh Tele bridge) and a 0.138" (3.5mm) offset between the string path and the edge of the fretboard I ended up with 2.212" (56.16mm) width at the the heel. The neck and fretboard end where fret 25 would be.

While the higher frets are not as accessible as they would be on an SG-type guitar, they are totally useable and don't feel like I had to sacrifice much to get them in. I did push the neck pickup back a bit but you'd need to move it further in for it to stop sounding like a Tele neck pickup :)
 
Top