Scalloped Fretboard?, You have one! Options

[sidewas lightnin...]

I have noticed through watching your wonderful videos that you have a scalloped fretboard on your guitar. I know you play lots of neo classical stuff, and yngwie malmsteen has guitars just like yours. While I understand the concept of a scalloped fretboard, I haven't ever played on one, so I don't know the advantages (or disadvantages) scalloping a fretboard has. Also, do you know how easy of a process scalloping a fretboard is? I imagine it would be fairly tedious, but I just wanted to know. I am building a guitar as of now, and I don't have the budget to buy a scalloped neck (it's not the scalloping that's expensive, it's the brands that offer scalloping .)

Also- I was curious about this. why does your guitar have two black pickups and one white pickup?

Thanks

SidewaYs lightning

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[Marcus Lavendell]

Hi Sideways

When you play on a scalloped fretboard you won't touch the wood in between the frets. So this basically means that there's no resistance when you bend strings or play with vibrato. You'll also get a better "grip" of the strings.
These are the advantages

I personally can't find any disadvantages, but that's probably because I've used scalloped necks for a long time and I've learned how to play with it. However, most guitarists that try a scalloped neck for the first time don't like it at all. They often say that it sounds like the guitar is out of tune, and it's all very awkward.

It takes some practicing to learn how to play on a scalloped fretboard. Because if you press down the strings too hard, they notes will go sharp. So you'll have to learn to play with a lighter touch, and this just takes some time to learn.

About the actual process of scalloping a fretboard.
Well, I've done it several times and I can say that it's not hard in any way - but it takes a lot of time. I often spend a whole weekend for this. The easiest way is to use a Dremel tool, and then different sand papers. And always always be very careful so you don't damage the frets. I recommend you to first practice on a cheap neck, and once you got the hang of it you can do it on your favorite one.

PS. I must add that you can just as well put on tall frets, instead of scalloping the fretboard. The idea, as I said before, is to not touch the wood. And you can achive that simply by getting a neck with tall frets.


PS 2.
About my pickup covers... well, I put that guitar together myself and at the time I had two black and one white. And I didn't care much about it I don't know, does it look funny?!


//Marcus

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This post has been edited by Marcus Lavendell: Sep 25 2008, 08:48 AM

[sidewas lightnin...]

Thanks for the advice- that's a world of help for me. I might try to do it on my squier, but not until my other guitar is finished. I don't think I could handle not having a guitar for a few weeks.

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[Marcus Lavendell]

Great! I hope you'll like it

You don't have to do the scallop so deep this first time. Try a little bit first to see how you like it. You can always scallop it deeper later if you want... but of course not the other way around

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[kjutte]

Great! I hope you'll like it

You don't have to do the scallop so deep this first time. Try a little bit first to see how you like it. You can always scallop it deeper later if you want... but of course not the other way around

Aren't you causes weak points when scallopping? Do you need an extra thick neck?

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[Marcus Lavendell]

Aren't you causes weak points when scallopping? Do you need an extra thick neck?

Well yes, I guess the neck gets weaker because we are in fact taking away some wood.
I heard a guy once who talked about this risk, but I've never ever heard of a neck that cracked because of the scallop. Never!

I've scalloped really thin Ibanez necks with no problems at all

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[kjutte]

Well yes, I guess the neck gets weaker because we are in fact taking away some wood.
I heard a guy once who talked about this risk, but I've never ever heard of a neck that cracked because of the scallop. Never!

I've scalloped really thin Ibanez necks with no problems at all

I see. definitely have to adjust the trussrod though.

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[Marcus Lavendell]

I see. definitely have to adjust the trussrod though.

Yes, that's a good idea!

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[OzRob]

It takes some practicing to learn how to play on a scalloped fretboard. Because if you press down the strings too hard, they notes will go sharp. So you'll have to learn to play with a lighter touch, and this just takes some time to learn.

<snip>

PS. I must add that you can just as well put on tall frets, instead of scalloping the fretboard. The idea, as I said before, is to not touch the wood. And you can achive that simply by getting a neck with tall frets.

+1

Neither of my guitars has scallops but...my Hamer has very low frets and is a speed machine with very thin neck and low action but I find it difficult to do left-hand vibrato so I use the FR bar for that. Then I got my new ESP and it has extra jumbo frets. I kept thinking the guitar was going out of tune and was horrified that such an expensive instrument was so lousy. Took me awhile to realise that the problem was me - I was trying to play it the same as the Hamer by pushing the string down onto the fretboard with the result of sharping the notes. I've had to develop a lighter touch.

I would love a scalloped neck but in the meantime, XJ frets kind of do the trick.

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[Marcus Lavendell]

Thanks for sharing Rob
This is a very common thing. Most beginners press down the strings harder than they should (and they might not even know it). But when we learn to play with a lighter touch it's more effortless, and also easier to play faster.

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