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I am curious as to how do you tell if a fretboard is a long or short scale just by looking at one? Is the fingerboard actually longer on a long scale? I'm talking specifically about Martin. I have an OM kit I'm working on that didn't have the fingerboard when I bought it. I ordered one from Martin, the lady asked if I had a bolt-on or glue-on neck.I told her bolt-on, but its not. Its the dovetail neck, I thought the threaded hole was to bolt it on. Actually still don't know what that's for. I know, really dumb! Thanks!

what numbers and letters are on the neck ? You need to measure the fretboard to see the scale length , the numbers can tell me what neck you have and then I can tell you what the scale is to be. If you got this from ebay and it was cr0n you can have anything .

John won't the distance from the nut to the 12th fret give him his scale? Just double that distance?
Or does he need to measure from the nut to the center of the bridge?

As far as I know, that is the correct way to determine the scale length.

yes you measure from the nut to the 12th fret but in this case he doesn't have the fretboard and he needs to match the fretboard to the neck. Martin marks their necks with a number and let say 57mw that would let me know what scale length neck he has so he may order the correct fretboard .
While an OM is long scale , if he got this from ebay , he may not have the right neck .

The dovetail has on one side, written in marker, a 9 and a 2. The other side of the dovetail has a stamped 0334. It measures 12 3/4 from nut end to 12th fret.

I hope that made sense. I have had the fretboard since right after I bought the kit. I just got to wondering how I would know if in fact I have the right one since I wasnt sure on my neck. I did buy it on ebay from a guy in Fla. I've picked up many guitars to play and never gave it a second thought as to the scale length. I've read a lot about guys saying they played a short scale or long. How did they know, because someone said thats what it is or could they tell by looking? Or measure?

Scale length is measured from the nut to the 12th fret and then that is doubled. We often refer to them as 24.9 and 25.4 . OM is 25.4

Thanks for explaining how to measure the scale of the fretboard. What is the threaded insert in the dovetail for? Helping to secure the neck?

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