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Posted by: Kristofer Dahl Mar 20 2023, 10:33 AM

So this one was long in the making...

My https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=54119is probably my most versatile guitar, as well as the most lightweight and stable. So it's likely the one I would bring with me if I had to travel somewhere to perform.

But there is just one problem... the frets are vintage style and super low. Action on the guitar is great so if only I could fix this issue, it might turn this into my main guitar...

However re-fretting is difficult / expensive and to me doesn't really make sense if the frets aren't worn out.

Enter scalloping

I have already scalloped a guitar (Steinberger Spirit GT-pro) - however I was close to trashing that one and really did not have much to loose. So I tried a quick scallop with an electric Dremel tool and BAM - the guitar is now a monster.

This time around I did not want to opt for a quick and dirty Dremel job so I attempted to do it with traditional tools:

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Let's first remove the neck




Let's add a layer of protection with some paint tape




Let's get started!




Close-up




For this scallop, I opted for the Richie Blackmore school of thinking where you just remove the wood close to the fretwire where you would/should fret.




Still a little rough around the edges, but this is more than good enough for my 'player' needs. (At this point I had probably worked on it for like 5 hours I would say)

In fact, I couldn't help myself but restring quickly to try it out, oh boy is it a totally different guitar in terms of playability...





Let's finish this off with some boiled Linseed Oil




I was very pleased to see how this brought out some beautiful structure in the fretboard wood.




End result looks cool to me, and I highly doubt I'll be able to wait until that oil has dried 😅

edit

I did a quick recording with it, check 01:55 for some twang:

Posted by: klasaine Mar 20 2023, 03:23 PM

Cool!

Posted by: Alex Arvedahl Mar 20 2023, 07:37 PM

Looks nice!
Will be nice to hear a demo of it when you are done

Posted by: Kristofer Dahl Mar 21 2023, 06:41 PM

🤩

I did a quick recording with it, check 01:55 for some twang:

Posted by: Phil66 Mar 22 2023, 08:41 PM

How much did the truss rod need altering after doing that?

Posted by: Kristofer Dahl Mar 23 2023, 06:45 AM

It does not affect string action, but it makes it look different since the wood is now further away from the strings.

Posted by: Phil66 Mar 23 2023, 11:15 AM

Interesting, I thought that with the removal of that amount of wood, the string tension would have a greater effect on the neck causing it to bow more.

Posted by: Kristofer Dahl Mar 23 2023, 11:20 AM

That sounds possible, but I haven’t noticed this effect. It is likely not noticeable when removing just a small portion of wood.

Posted by: Storm Linnebjerg Mar 23 2023, 04:49 PM

I've never seen a scallop done that way, that sort of 50/50 vertical scallop on a single fret where half the fret is left untouched. Interesting!

Posted by: Kristofer Dahl Mar 23 2023, 08:06 PM

I read this is how Ritchie Blackmore used to do it, and it totally made sense to me so I decided to try it. + I like my guitars to have a very different feel.

If I were to do another one, I think i’d do it like this again though, rather than the symmetric Yngwie approach.

Posted by: Storm Linnebjerg Mar 23 2023, 10:19 PM

Ah, I'd just never seen it done like that, but it seemed interesting. I'd always seen the Blackmore one as a smoother curver kinda way.

Posted by: Kristofer Dahl Mar 23 2023, 10:31 PM

had i been a better luthier, it would have been smoother. But that curve can be further filed down in the future. I just removed the absolute minimum for the effect I needed.

Posted by: Storm Linnebjerg Mar 24 2023, 12:14 AM

I actually thought your version was kinda cool. I know we're advised to play right up against the fret wire, but it made me wonder if there could be some kinda advantage to having half the fret still be normal and the other half not. So I actually liked your "version", intended or not. It made me think!

Posted by: Kristofer Dahl Mar 24 2023, 07:44 AM

Awesome you dig it 👊 they way it is now, it's more like a crossover between Yngwie and Blackmore