Bass guitar the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th fret and 12th fret (the 12th fret being the octave of the open string) and on the octave-up equivalents of the 3rd fret and as many additional positions as an instrument has frets for. Typically, one marker is on the 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th fret positions and two markers on the 12th fret. The long scale necks on Leo Fender's basses—with a scale length (distance between nut and bridge) of — set the standard for electric basses, although "short scale" instruments, such as the Höfner 500/1 "violin bass" played by Paul McCartney, and the
Scale length (string instruments) All other things being equal, increasing the scale length of an instrument requires an increase in string tension for a given pitch. A musical string may be divided by the twelfth root of two formula_1, approximately 1.059463094 and the result taken as the string-length position at which the next semitone pitch (fret position) should be placed from the previous fret (or, in case this is the first calculation, the nut or zero fret) of the instrument. This quotient is then divided again by itself to locate the next semitone higher, and so on. Alternatively, the string may be divided by