How did guitars avoid going decimal?

m_c

I guess they could always go quasi-metric like pneumatic/hydraulic fittings where you can't have a 1/8"BSP fitting, but you have a 'metric' G1/8 fitting.

GSPBASSES

sgosden said:

It's cos old blokes make em innit. Old blokes don't understand new stuff like metric system, computers, or dub steps. Think it's just witchcraft and noise.
Innit. 

This old geezer went metric years before it was supposed to be compulsory. I reckon 90 percent of the orders I get from you  youngsters are in Imperial (at my age anyone under 60 is a youngster). I think that is very disingenuous to say that old blokes don't understand metric or computers. I installed a computer system in my company, most likely before a lot of the members of this forum were born. It had two 8" floppy disks holding a massive 40 K each, one was for programs and the other one for data. There was about 6 data discs that were split in alphabetical order to hold the accounts of our customers. This was replaced a few years later by a IBM PC with a 40 megabyte hard disk.

Interestingly, my stay in hospital before Christmas is was in the ward full of old geezers like me, and every one of them had a smart phone or an iPad. They did know how to use them, I would say over half of them were using their iPads to face time their family and friends.

So maybe you should rethink that statement about old blokes. 

Rocker

Golf features an interesting mix of metric and imperial measurements: "I hit a 9 iron 118 metres to 6 feet from the pin"


[A lot of golfers use GPS measuring watches/devices so distances from ball to green are known to be very accurate]

wellsyboy

What would be the point of changing any of that to metric?????

wellsyboy

I meant the guitar stuff

wellsyboy

Flink_Poyd said:

Nut width is usually in mm

Really???

Bridgehouse

wellsyboy said:

Flink_Poyd said:

Nut width is usually in mm

Really???

Certainly is in the bass world. 

Jazz - 38mm
Precision (new) - 41/42mm
Precision (old) - 44mm

Used to be imperial but we don't live in the past like you guitarists..

p90fool

It depends who invented things usually - spark plugs are metric even in the States. 

Tyres are the oddest one though to me, the diameter is imperial and the width is metric these days. 

SteveRobinson

I seems to recall metric diameter tyres in the past, I assume they didn't catch on.

Sporky

Sporkbasster 1 was mostly metric - scale length, radius and so on.

Whitecat

Countries that have never touched the Imperial system often seem to express both - eg - https://www.musik-produktiv.com/gretsch-original-g6119-tennessee-rose.html

m_c

p90fool said:

It depends who invented things usually - spark plugs are metric even in the States. 

Tyres are the oddest one though to me, the diameter is imperial and the width is metric these days. 

Tyres are actually a good example. In the days of crossply they were pure imperial. Then with the advent of radial tyres, there was an attempt to go metric ( @SteveRobinson IIRC BMW and Austin/Rover did use pure metric briefly), as radial gave more options for tyre width/height. However, nobody really wanted to invest in new machinery to produce metric rims/tyre beads (it's also why you'll often find things like modern engines still use the same cylinder spacing as engines from the 50/60/70s, as nobody wanted to spend millions altering production lines for no real gain), so we ended up with the bastardised sizing you get now.
Imperial, metric, and a ratio.

Funkfingers

wellsyboy said:

Flink_Poyd said:

Nut width is usually in mm

Really???

Measurements can be made in any arbitrary unit that you choose. The dimensions of the guitar nut will not change, only your chosen units of representation.

Unfortunately, StewMac is yet to offer a steel rule marked out in gnat's cocks. 

Neill

guitarfishbay said:

I guess a strong US influence on guitar culture is a factor.

To go metric would involve some rounding up/down of the various measurements. Presumably the three top selling brands - Gibson, Fender, PRS, account for a significant proportion of worldwide sales and as they are US companies they are not going to change their dimensions without a very good reason. 

Contrast this with the world of cycling which because of its multi national nature is a total mess.  We invented the bicycle but the French and the Italians like to think they did, and these days of course the Americans and the Japanese are major players.  As a result we have metric and imperial systems to this day running side by side causing total confusion, at least to the uninitiated, and everyone says 25.4 dia tube just because the French can't bear to say the word "inch"  

Roland

Rocker said:

Golf features an interesting mix of metric and imperial measurements: "I hit a 9 iron 118 metres to 6 feet from the pin"

Last time I bought brass strip it was sold by the metre, width was in inches, thickness in SWG, and it was priced by kg.

HAL9000

Ten bar blues anyone? Don’t forget the middle ten?

Phil_aka_Pip

HAL9000 said:

Ten bar blues anyone? Don’t forget the middle ten?

Wring that neck (Deep Purple) is a 17-bar. Was this a subtle hint that Ritchie Blackmore even back in the late 60s was thinking in terms of mediaeval measurement systems?

Neill

Has anyone noticed that all the great songs are in imperial, I can't think of a single metric pop/rock song.

"Sixteen tons"

"500 miles" (ok -I'm gonna be for the purists)

"Eight Miles High"

"I can see for miles"

"The Chain" 

"Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps"

"Tiger Feet"

SteveRobinson

What about "We'll metre gain"?

Bridgehouse

Neill said:

Has anyone noticed that all the great songs are in imperial, I can't think of a single metric pop/rock song.

"Sixteen thousand kilos"

"500 kilometres" (ok -I'm gonna be for the purists)

"Eight Kilometres High"

"I can see for kilometres"

"The Centiletre 

"Two Litres of Lager and 20 cubic centimetres of Crisps"

"Tiger Metres"

It's cos they don't scan - see above...