How did guitars avoid going decimal?

DiscoStu

Gram Parsons though.

carlos

Guitar making is one of the least standardized industries I've come across even though the products don't deviate that much. However if you go on websites of non USA or British makers, you'll find most info in metric. Mostly it's convenience, right? Easier to say 25.5 scale than 647mm and 43mm nut instead of 1 and 11/16ths. 
As somebody who grew up with metric the fractions of an inch are especially offensive. Ditto for overlapping units of weight: pounds for most things but then somehow stone for people?

EricTheWeary

What about the famous metric pop artists Milli Vanilli?

Or for the rock fans Litre Ford? 

Phil_aka_Pip

Megadeth

The Kilos (stretch the pronunciation there)

Rolling Stones

wellsyboy

I think the point I was trying to make was that when I look a t a guitar spec online and I see a fretboard radius of 9. whatever or 12 or 7.5" etc or I see a scale length of 25.5" or a nut width of 1 11/16" I can visualise in my head what it is. If someone stated anything in metric I would be thinking "what is that???" convert it to imperial and go oh 25.5" - strat scale length!

scrumhalf

Kilo Queen?

Rocker

Rosie as described by AC/DC, imperial I seem to recall

HAL9000

Every chance, every chance that I take I take it on the road
Those kilometres and the red lights
I was always looking left and right

  Always Crashing in the Same Car - David Bowie

RaymondLin

Architects designs and draw in mm.
Builders get the same plans and build it to mm.
Estate agents then put it up as sq ft...

WTF.

thegummy

wellsyboy said:

I think the point I was trying to make was that when I look a t a guitar spec online and I see a fretboard radius of 9. whatever or 12 or 7.5" etc or I see a scale length of 25.5" or a nut width of 1 11/16" I can visualise in my head what it is. If someone stated anything in metric I would be thinking "what is that???" convert it to imperial and go oh 25.5" - strat scale length!

I always find imperial easier to picture but always measure in metric if measuring anything. I find fractions of inches cumbersome for measuring. Whereas, I know roughly what imperial weights are like, can picture distances in imperial better. It's funny that in the UK we seem to measure people in imperial but everything else in metric lol.

Guitars are because they're American. When you buy a guitar made elsewhere, some of the things are still imperial - fretboard radius, scale etc. - because they're copying American guitars. But other things that aren't important to copy like electronics, screw holes etc. are metric. In fact, just this morning I had to ream out a hole on a Korean PRS to install a CTS pot because the metric hole was too small.

guitars4you

 I have tended to always use imperial as mentioned above, by many, regarding scale length, fingerboard radius etc - yet for nut width I tend to use 1 11/16 or 43mm which is effectively Gibson width (plus many others) - yet always 1 5/8" for Fender-esq nut width as I don't know what that equates to in mm, but certainly less of a straight forward number to recall

Today and Fender now use both when it comes to say grub screws etc for bridges be it MIJ and other of shore production etc or imperial on USA

HAL9000

It does seem odd that we have never fully gone metric. My children learnt metric at school and think of smaller length measurements in cm or meters but think of driving distances in miles (like our road signs, speedometers, and odometers). I buy petrol in litres but measure fuel consumption in miles per gallon. I buy milk in litres, but beer in pints. I guess that unless the USA (like it or not they’re a big influence on British culture and thinking) goes metric then we will have a bit of both imperial and metric for quite a while to come.

FelineGuitars

My life is one of constant conversion.....

Knowing and working in metric and inches

Some things when they are small measurements are easier in thousandths of an inch (not least of all because we as players are used to string gauges being 9-42 or 10-46)

If I am discussing fret sizes and the old wire is 42thou tall and the new wire they want is 55 thou it is easy to picture the new wire as being 25% taller using whole numbers rather than introducing decimals.

However give me nut widths and I prefer to reverting back to mm because I can cope with decimals better than various fractions such as 1&5/8" or 1&11/16

Teetonetal

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. 

You have, sadly just described my Dad.

thegummy

FelineGuitars said:

My life is one of constant conversion.....

Knowing and working in metric and inches

Some things when they are small measurements are easier in thousandths of an inch (not least of all because we as players are used to string gauges being 9-42 or 10-46)

If I am discussing fret sizes and the old wire is 42thou tall and the new wire they want is 55 thou it is easy to picture the new wire as being 25% taller using whole numbers rather than introducing decimals.

However give me nut widths and I prefer to reverting back to mm because I can cope with decimals better than various fractions such as 1&5/8" or 1&11/16

That's a good point - when I'm doing a setup and measuring action or relief etc. I always use imperial even though I could flip the measuring card thing round to get metric.

Yet, if I was measuring a piece of furniture or something I'd definitely go mm without thinking.

Saying that, I don't think there's anything outside of guitars that I measure that's as small as the action on a guitar so not sure what I'd use for that (no childish jokes).

WezV

if i thought about it i would probably get confused.

I think i measure everything in mm but certainly talk in inches.   Similarly i tend to weigh in grams and convert to pounds and ounces to make it meaningful.


Even prior to guitar building.  My first job prior at 16 was on the deli counter at morrisons.   everyone would ask for stuff in pounds and ounces, the scales were in grams.   

Sporky

I think we should start using mixed units such as the millifurlong (approx 20cm) and the microfortnight (about 1.2 seconds).

carlos

guitars4you said:

 I have tended to always use imperial as mentioned above, by many, regarding scale length, fingerboard radius etc - yet for nut width I tend to use 1 11/16 or 43mm which is effectively Gibson width (plus many others) - yet always 1 5/8" for Fender-esq nut width as I don't know what that equates to in mm, but certainly less of a straight forward number to recall

You find it easier to remember 1 11/16 and 1 5/8 rather than 43mm and 42mm? Am I the only one who has to do the math in his head if 11/16 is bigger or smaller than 5/8? 43 is clearly bigger than 42, easier to remember.

I can understand stuff like radius, where 12" is 305mm which is a harder number to remember. But those fractions?

Placidcasual79

DiscoStu said:

Just thought about that this morning. Practically everything is decimal these days and have been for decades, yet guitars (and guitarists) have managed to remain imperial. 
25.5" scale length, 9.5" radius, weighs 7.5 lbs... Even our string gauges are fractions of an inch.

Was there a meeting about this?

Slow morning? 

scrumhalf

DiscoStu said:

Was there a meeting about this?

Yes, it was held at 3.875 pm.