Scalloping a Fret board

[metalchurch]

I want to scallop frets 16-24 on this guitar I'm building.

Has anyone done this before?

I want to know how deep I should make them.
Is there a general depth that everyone goes by, or it mainly personal preference?

Would the side markers on the fret board be a good guide?

Thanks alot

[DrumAndDestroy]

i've played the yngwie signature strat. you get some pretty awesome control with the scalloped neck.

everyone tells me after playing this they want all of their guitars to have scalloped necks.

[RamRod 1]

I've heard of "Scalloped" bracing in an acoustic but what's a "scallped neck"?

[bassist_25]

I've heard of "Scalloped" bracing in and acoustic but what's a "scallped neck"?

Some guitars have dips cut into the last couple of frets to improve speed. I've never played an instrument with a scalloped fretboard, but I've always wanted to try one. The Billy Sheehan Attitude basses have scalloped fretboards.

[metalchurch]

I found some pictures that shows what I mean.









Here's a tutorial about it that I found:
http://www.projectguitar.com/menu/main.htm
At the bottom of the page, Click on 'Tutorials', and then click on 'Building a Neck'

I tried to copy and paste but the address did not show up.

[lonewolf]

Here ya go Joe:

http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/scal1.htm

[Banned]

Who was it around here that had a homebrew guitar where EVERY fret was scalloped? Jeff Wallack? That was a neat guitar.

[metalchurch]

Yeah, that's the page I was looking for.
Thanks Jeff.

I've never played one before.
I held my buddie's Yngwie Strat, but of course it was right handed, so I never played it.

Yngwie credit's Ritchie Blackmore for the inspiration.

I wonder where Blackmore got it from? Does anyone know that?

[Baceman Spiff]

Yngwie credit's Ritchie Blackmore for the inspiration.

I wonder where Blackmore got it from? Does anyone know that?

SATAN!!

[metalchurch]

Hey Jeff, did you see that guy was using a sander to scallop his frets?
I wish I had a detail sander, but I have to do it the old fashioned way.
Have my girlfriend do it.
LOL

I can't wait until we buy a house, then I can invest in some power tools, like a router and a sander, a jig saw. etc..

So, I'm limited to what tools I use because of where I live, which really sucks and adds way more time than necessary for certain things.

This is funny:
When I painted the Kramer, I hung it off of a dumpster behind my apartment to paint it. (Can't paint in the house)
Talk about ghetto stylin' right there.
I'm surprised no old lady called the cops, saying that I was taggin' the alleyway.
Haha!

I just like trying new things when I build a guitar.
Since this is inspired by Vai's guitar. I thought: WWVD?
What Would Vai Do.
He'd scallop the fret board.

I better just hit 'submit' I'm getting crazy now.

[metalchurch]

Satan! yeah, that's awesome!

Satan also told Iommi to tune down to C#
He said: "Tony, tune down to C#, it will be heavier."
And Tony did.

There I go again...
I must refrain from mentioning anything associated with Black Sabbath, in every other post.
It's just so hard not to.

[stratobastard27]

You're gonna scallop a board on a good guitar the first time out? I would'nt think that's too great an idea. I recommend going out and buying two or three $50 pawnshop P.O.S.'s and destroying them first. I've never even attempted a scallop, but everywhere I've read in GW or on videos, or anything, whenever self-scalloping is mentioned, they've always said do it on a piece of crap first! Don't do it on a good axe til you know what you're up against. Sorry, man, I'm not trying to call you an idiot, but practice on garbage first.

[RamRod 1]

So I guess if you press down hard on the string on a "scalloped" fret board, you'll get the "Sitar effect" and raise the pitch of the note. Is that the goal or is it speed or something else?

Louie Brumbaugh had some crazy things going on on his fretboard that might have been similar back in the "70's". Anyone remember the Tele Neck on the Strat body with his teeth marks from him biting the the body and holding up in the air?

I miss Louie.

[Merge]

The very first guitar I owned was a Washburn with a scalloped fretboard. It was a very easy guitar to play. It wasn't the greatest for playing chords, I had to be careful because even a little too much pressure and it would go sharp on me. Any guitarist with even a little bit of speed could go 10 times faster on it. I sold it after I realized what "Tone" was. It had the worst tone of any guitar I've ever played. I bought that guitar with the frets scalloped, but I wouldn't attempt to scallop the frets on a guitar that I was going to be playing all the time, unless I had done it before. I would do it on a guitar that was cost $40 at the pawn shop.

[metalchurch]

Have some faith gentlemen!

I'm doing this by hand so, I'll be taking my time anyway.
I wouldn't even consider doing this to my Jackson's, but this guitar is another story.
Besides if by chance I do mess this up, I can just buy another neck and start over.
And instead of buying 2 or 3 pawn shop specials @ $50.00 a pop, I'd just buy a Jackson neck for $150.00

I know what you guys mean though, but this doesn't appear to be all that hard to accomplish.

Keep an eye out for this:

*ESP/Ltd. neck for sale: 15 Frets / 18.5 inch scale
Perfect for your next Jr. Vai guitar project!

[Ron]

Who was it around here that had a homebrew guitar where EVERY fret was scalloped? Jeff Wallack? That was a neat guitar.

Yeah that was Jeff's strat. He scalloped it using different sized dowel rods and sandpaper.

[metalchurch]

Ron, I started out by wrapping 80 grit around different sized pens, and screw drivers to fit in between the frets.
It was taking too long, so I went and got a sandpaper drum attatchment for my dremel.

I etched a line in the middle with my hack saw for a guide, then I used my dremel free handed and kind of just eye balled it up from different angles to make it look good.

I still need to detail it with finer grits of sand paper, which I will do by hand.
Then I'll clean and oil the whole neck so that the color blends in nicely and in uniform.

Here's some pics after I dremeled it. I oiled it lightly so the detail shows up better.

[metalchurch]

Here's that sanding drum attachment that I was talking about:

[mjb]

i might be retodded but, and i know about the whole scalloped fret deal, never had any desire to play one, i'm a blues player mainly and like to dig in and am a bit heavy-handed but for the life of me i don't understand how scalloping frets makes you play faster. for the love of god, can some body tell me how this makes one play faster. i just don't get it. what does the scallop do.

by the way joe, nice job! i think

[metalchurch]

mjb, I'm not real sure, because I've never played one myself, but the only thing that I can tell you, is that with the scalloped board, you don not need to apply as much pressure to make the notes sound.
Therefore, with a lighter touch, you can really get some speed from it.

I can't wait to try it out. I have a feeling that I may like it, and I'll end up doing the rest of the neck.

If anyone can share some first hand experience, that would be cool.

[paul]

You cant be heavy handed as you will press the note sharp by pushing to hard. Thats why most guys do only the lower part of the neck as the frets are closer together and harder to push the note sharp. I have seen some scalloped the whole way and if you try to chord and are pushing to hard it will sound out of tune and a little sharp . Where the fretboard stops your finger from pushing too sharp. I think the whole thing was to make you play lighter which some guys will make them think faster. I dont know if I buy that as I have seen a lot of heavy handed guys that could never be able to play a scalloped neck that are just lightning fast. Joe make sure when you press down on the string you dont want to hit any board. On some of those if you use the same sanding drum you are further away from the wider spaces between the frets and you might run in to the sides of the scallop. Thats why Jeff used different size dowels with sandpaper on them to go with the bigger ones on the wider frets. A couple of the vendors I deal with sell the scallpoed neck and I have ordered a few for some guys and they taper toward the fret and arent a drastic drum cut line and when you look at them from the front you can hardley tell they are scallpoed.

[mjb]

it's been a while since i even seen one but it seems i remember like from the high E the scallop kind of faded to nothing by the time it got to the low E. does that sound right? i don't know.

[metalchurch]

Paul, I know what you mean about the drum being the same diameter.
I noticed that after I scalloped it. So, to compensate for having the same scallop cut for each fret, I widened it out a little bit. The picture I posted was after the first pass, so it looks kind of shitty.

I don't think I would like the feel of the entire neck being done, as you stated.
I also believe that it is a placebo effect anyway, but you never know.

mjb, I've read where the scallops taper in depth from the high to low side like you said. The Yngwie Strat was symmetrical across the board.

I'd imagine that are no real rules from what I've read and heard, but more a matter of opinion and personal preference.

This might actually help me develop a lighter touch that I can use to my advantage in the long run.