Scalloped Fretboard for electric blues guitar. Part 2.

Another tune on the scalloped Ibanez guitar , this time - Goodbye Porkpie Hat.

General info on scalloped guitars copied and pasted from the other video.-
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THE HISTORY.
One of earliest players players to scallop guitar was Ritchie Blackmore who in the early to mid 70's had a lightly scalloped Strat . About that time American inventor Allen Gittler produced the Gittler guitar , a metal skeleton of a guitar with just a rod with attached frets and no fretboard. ( more info about Gitttler guitar can be found with Google or Wikipedia) Also in mid 1970's John McLaughin played a Abraham Wechter drone string acoustic with deep scallops . Late he played a scalloped Gibson ES 345 electric guitar iin the One Truth Band . In the 1980's Ygnwie Malmsteen played a Strat he scalloped himself. Some posters have pointed out however that Vietnamese guitarists have been doing this a long time
REASONS FOR SCALLOPING.
There are 2 reasons why some players like scalloped boards . Some like the feel of not having any friction with a fretboard , they don't play or sound any different , they just like for want of a better word the slinky way it feels without fretboard.
Other players prefer it because it allows them to play deeper more micro tonal bends than would be possible with conventional guitar.
SHALLOW OR DEEP SCALLOPS.
Players who just like the feel don't need deep scallops . Rock players will usually have shallow scallops , and some people prefer the look of this aesthetically .However for big Indian sounding bends , your fingers need more space Even though you don't press inward that much , the wood will get in the way of your fingers . Deep scallops do not seem to affect strength or stability of neck or affect tone as far as I can tell.
WOOD AROUND THE FRETS.
I leave some wood around the frets rather than scallop right up to the fret . Some posters say it doesn't look good having that remaining wood around the frets, but it doesn't get in the strings way and I feel it would make it easier for a repairman to refret the guitar if that became necessary. I also think it helps to retain some strength .

INWARD BENDING.
Guitars have have much thicker strings than a sitar , so with scalloped gtr you don't bend inwards much as the string tension prevents you . However it would be possible if you used extremely light strings , but then it wouldn't sound like a guitar anymore. The bending is still done by bending up or down , with a limited amount of inward pressure to shape the sound .
PLAYING CHORDS.
It is more difficult to play chords and is inevitable that there will be the odd time where notes in chords will sound out of pitch. With string guage 009 strings , it can be a bit tricky , altho you get used to it with practise . With 010 or 011 strings then its not so difficult , but again there will be times when some chords sound slightly out of tune. Its a trade off between not being able to play chords as well in order to have the unique feel of scalloped board. Strings on this guitar were 0-49 - 011. It took about a total of 8 hours work to scallop this guitar . For players who have strat style guitars and don't want to do it themselves , its possible to buy pre scalloped necks as someone has pointed out in the comments pages.

TIP - Altho the scalloping worked well with this gtr , it would have been better if the gtr had a wider and flatter neck . With big bends sometimes the notes fret out with the slightly curved board , and the neck is not quite wide enough to easily execute bending without banging into the other strings . My advice for those who are going to scallop their own guitar is to choose a gtr that has wide fat neck with flat fingerboard. Scalloping an expensive guitar not recommended as it affects the value of the guitar so much.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Goodbye
• Pork
• Pie
• Hat
• Jeff
• Beck
• Charles
• Mingus
• Wired
• scalloped
• guitar
• neck
• Ibanez
• jazz
• fusion
• blues

[Cabbycabbage]

I cant agree with Kopisetic or how ever your spell his or her name. I scalloped the neck of my 1982 Tokai strat after buying it and have played blues on it ever since. Dont believe that its a speed thing that would be a mistake.One gets to feel the string more and be able to "pull at it" in a very vicious manner if you want to. Also a set of standard 9's or 10's (I use 11's) will feel like your playing 13's at times. I still own the rat tailed file that I used to do the job nearly 30 years ago!

[stringrip]

@Cabbycabbage I agree with that , I don't find it makes any difference with regard to speed. I also heard Yngwie Malmsteen himself say much the same thing in a radio interview , - he said it didn't make any difference to the way he played , he just liked the feel.

[Kopisetik]

I don't think scalloped necks are helpful for playing blues at all!! you can never get the same feeling as you can when your finger touches wood,.... I think scalloped necks are only good for speed demons like yngvie malmsteen (however you spell his name) even listening to your playing the blues ,.. it just sounded void of any emotion,... sorry.

[stringrip]

@Kopisetik It can be used for different types of music not just speed, For example the song 'Every Tear From Every Eye' from John McLaughlin 'Electric Guitarist' album. Point taken about not enough emotion , but still it was just a guitar demo video.

[screamingtrashcans]

What does scalloping your fretboard do to your playing? Also, does it make your neck any less strong, or need any more matenence... anything like that? Thnx.

[stringrip]

@screamingtrashcans It make bending easier , some feel it helps for wider vibrato. Please see the Part 1 video there is discussion there in the recent comments about whether it affects the neck.

[crazyiommi]

@Kopisetik I think they are more helpful, especially for bending. Isn'y THAT what reallydefines the blues, the expression in the bends? This guy can't BEND! Ynwgie has more 'bend' expression than anyone. Just makes it easier to hold those bends of 1- 1 1-1/2, and more. Its all feel man. 1st you gotta have FEEL!

[csensesfail92]

@countolaf32 the wood in between the frets has been filed down so there is a concave section in the wood of each fret. I just recently heard of this, and by "recently" I mean 3 videos before this one haha

[countolaf32]

What the Hell is a scalloped neck?

[marksmitchell]

@Kopisetik You tend to sound like a guy who has never spent any time playing a scalloped neck. The scallops alone have nothing to do with speed. And you don't need to feel the wood in order to play with feeling. Every song on my channel is played on a scalloped neck, that's all I play. A scalloped neck is great for playing blues...

[FusionMusic1000]

@MeetyHam I find it more difficult to keep the intonation correct with a scalloped fretboard, but if the string is literally going out of tune, this is a problem with the tuners, strings or even the neck - more likely the tuners/strings. If the guitar is cheap, it won't have good tuners on it. You ought to have something like Grover machine heads with a gear ratio of 14:1 or 18:1 Their new design also grips the string automatically ruling out string slippage.

[FusionMusic1000]

@MeetyHam you also need to pre-stretch the strings before playing for recording or gigs. Strings take a while to settle in (More for Nylon strings) and the lighter gauge strings have more problems settling in than the heavier gauge ones.

To pre-stretch the strings, simply pull the strings like you would a bow and re-tune. Do this several times till you find it hold tune better.

Old strings always get intonation problems and this is sure time to replace them.