scaling measurements

[Ron Nossaman]

>Ron,
>In addition to the Sanderson measuring tapes, there's a nice method 
>for getting fairly accurate treble string lengths - I think David 
>Sanderson came up with this one, although I saw Michael Wathen do it 
>at a chapter technical.  You can slide a piece of paper up to the 
>capo bar termination and then make a rubbing of the strings and 
>bridge pins.  Then, just measure the distance between the impression 
>of the bridge pins and the edge of the paper that was at the capo 
>bar.
>
>Jon

Yep, I've tried that one, and it works pretty well. I also have a modified
yo-yo tape, like the ones Sanderson sells. I've also carefully measured out
from the capo to, say, 100mm or 150mm every fifth unison or so, marked the
string, connected the dots with a piece of masking tape reproducing the
capo curve, and measured to the bridge pins from there. Gets me past the
dampers if I want to figure a new scale before I tear down. In the tenor,
under the bass strings, I have been using a meter stick(s) with a right
angled "foot" on the end. The foot is around 80mm long, and has a kerf in
the end that slips over the bridge pin. I can slide the foot between bass
strings, index a bridge pin, and get a speaking length measurement at the
agraffe with a combination square reading directly from the meter stick.
The whole mess straddles over the dampers and struts (kind of like trammel
points), so there's no trying to fight fishing a slithery tape under
everything. It's all done from above. It's as accurate as anything else
I've come up with, and easier to do by myself than most, but I'd hoped I
might get lucky and someone would have some really slick method I could steal.

Thanks all for the thoughts.

Ron N