Talk:Scale length (string instruments)

message: I think it's great that someone has attempted to do this.  I do have some suggestions for improvement, and I may add some information to the article as I find the time.
* I think the article would be both more useful and more authoritative if it gave scale lengths for classes of instruments, rather than specific manufacturers' makes and models.  For example, a class might be "full size solid body electric guitars", rather than individually listing "Fender Mustang; Gibson Les Paul Recording; etc."  Perhaps manufacturer-specific information chould be included in a sub-chart or footnote.  Other classes could be "classical guitars"; "steel-string acoustic guitars"; "3/4-size guitars"; etc., and the same thing for violins, mandolins, etc.
* A range of scales lengths should be given for each instrument, with perhaps one or two of the most common being cited as "typical".  For example:  Classical Guitar:  24" - 26" (25 5/8", typical).  This is essential because scales do vary considerably within a particular range for most instruments.  For example, mandolins come in all sorts of scales from 33-41cm, but the article gives only 36cm as if it were a fixed constant.  I have steel-string acoustic guitars with scales considerably longer than most of my classical guitars.  I have bass guitars with scales anywhere from 21" to 42".
* I suggest giving both English and metric measurements for all instruments (right now some have both; others have one or the other).  
* There should be consistency in the units used:  right now some instruments have the metrics in mm, and others in cm.  With English units, fractions are more commonly used than decimals (e.g., 25 1/8" rather than 25.125"), but with metric decimals should be used (e.g., 67.5cm rather than 67 1/2cm).
* There are a lot more instruments which could be added.  The "Stringed Instrument Tunings" article lists over 200 stringed instruments, but the "other instrurments" section here only contains mandolins and ukuleles -- not even a banjo in sight.
Hope this is at least somewhat helpful, and as I said, I'll add information myself as time becomes available to do so.  Carry on. :)
::It would also be handy to have a chart somewhere on the page, that lists the various instruments and gives max, min, and typical scale lengths.  That way the amount of numbers in the text itself could be minimized, making the text easier to read, without losing any information, since all the numbers would still be there in the chart.  For example:
::
Instrument                	Typical        	Max. Scale     	Min. Scale     	
Violin (modern)           	~13" (328mm)   	13" (330mm)    	12-1/2" (320mm)	
Violin (Baroque)          	etc.           	               	               	
Viola                     	15" (381mm)    	15-3/4" (400mm)	13" (330mm)    	
Guitar (classical, modern)	25-5/8" (652mm)	24" (609mm)    	26" (661mm)    	
Guitar (steel string)     	etc.           	               	               	
Mandolin                  	etc.           	               	               	
Banjo (tenor)             	etc.           	               	               	
                          	               	               	               	
::And so on.  I haven't tried for accurate numbers in the example; just wanted to show a possible format.  It would probably make sense to group instruments by category (violin family; guitar family; etc.) and perhaps subgroup by period (modern; classical; Baroque; etc.)
:: Just a thought.
::74.95.43.253 (talk) 21:03, 1 February 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  Good Start; Needs Work 

message: Not a single Stradivarius violin survives with its original neck. (The one instrument with a baroque neck is a restoration.) Possibly drawings or templates survive as evidence of his original sounding string length (?), but that has nothing to do with the string length of a violin in modern setup.
695 is perhaps on the long side for cello by a few millimeters. (68-69 cm is what I think of as normal; perhaps more towards the 69 side.)
Viola string length isn't mentioned. Like body size, it varies (and NB a different body size does not NECESSARILY imply a different string length). Between about 14.25 and 15 inches would be about the range for instruments of a size suitable for use in a professional orchestra (body from around 16 to 16 3/4 inches).
It should perhaps be noted that the convention for these measurements for bowed strings is to measure from the edge of the center of the nut to the edge of the center of the bridge (i.e., in the middle, between the third and fourth strings). Thus the actual vibrating length of the strings is fractionally longer than the measurement since the strings are not parallel and fan out a bit from the center line where the measurement is taken. (The height of the bridge, which varies from string to string, will also have a small effect.)
The information on bowed string instruments duplicates (and to some extent contradicts) information in the articles on the individual instruments.
No sources!!!!
Yes, needs work.
72.76.5.211 (talk)   — Preceding undated comment added 17:53, 9 May 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Dubious Stradivarius measurements and others 

message: A suggestion, though somewhat emphatic. The opening is informative, but IMO entirely too voluminous and somewhat daunting. Shouldn't this be more of an abstract (summary)?? With that as the goal,  most of the (sorry, but it's true) infodump ought be moved to after the Contents. resolved Weeb Dingle (talk) 14:45, 24 June 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  shorten the intro section