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Topic: Fanned Fretboards on guitars |
Jan Viljoen
From:
Pretoria, South Africa
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Mike Neer
From:
NJ
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Posted 3 Jun 2014 5:32 am |
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Charlie Hunter is one of, if not my favorite guitarist on the planet. He plays an 8 string guitar with fanned frets (as pictured on the web site), and plays bass lines simultaneous with his guitar playing, but unlike anyone you've ever heard before. He is a funk, soul and jazz machine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG0RfV_stHA
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Links to streaming music, websites, YouTube: Links |
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Mike Neer
From:
NJ
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Posted 3 Jun 2014 5:38 am
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Charlie Hunter is one of, if not my favorite guitarist on the planet. He plays an 8 string guitar with fanned frets (as pictured on the web site), and plays bass lines simultaneous with his guitar playing, but unlike anyone you've ever heard before. He is a funk, soul and jazz machine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG0RfV_stHA
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Links to streaming music, websites, YouTube: Links |
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Jan Viljoen
From:
Pretoria, South Africa
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Posted 4 Jun 2014 6:39 am
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Yes Mike, I know of Charlie Hunter, he is outstanding.
Jazz his fortè.
I also see that many daring musicians want a 6 string fanned guitar. Why?
Is it just the thrill or what?
It is so true that whenever a new fad makes its appearance, many people run after it and very few make their mark.
On the other hand, to each his own, whatever makes you kick and enjoy your trodden path.
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Sierra S10, Stage One, Gibson BR4, Framus, Guya 6&8, Hofner lap, Custom mandolins, Keilwerth sax.
Roland Cube 80XL, Peavey112-Valve King and Special, Marshall 100VS. |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 5 Jun 2014 2:45 pm
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Fanned fretboards originated on citterns in the Middle Ages. Several people in recent history have taken out patents on them, but it's like trying to patent the soundhole. 
The original purpose was to compensate for the lack of bass strings hundreds of years ago. I've played and built guitars and mandolins with fanned fretboards and I've found no advantage to them whatsoever. And, don't forget, that with a fanned fretboard it's extremely awkward to use a capo.
It's really a gimmic. |
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David Mason
From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
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Posted 5 Jun 2014 3:31 pm
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I think the available string gauges can cover light, medium, and heavy sets on a six-string guitar and four-string bass very well. However, when you start getting and more strings on either, the variance in scale length could be really helpful. On a seven string guitar, a 10-46 set can be added to with a 0.060", 0.062" string. But they'll already have the tuning getting unstable. the 0.056" in most seven string sets of that gauge is both tubby and loose in tuning - when you hit is hard, it goes way sharp. That's even true of the low E on a six-string, to a certain extent. So a number of makers of seven-string guitars have gone to a 26.5" scale across the board, with the concomitant issues with the high string's tightness. If you fan, you can go from a 25" high E to a 27" low B or A.
A lot of five-string electric basses jump right to a 35" scale instead of the standard 34", because the low B strings are often... pretty bad, can I say? They've also tried tapered cores, to try and obviate the tubby-tone deadness of a 0.135" string. And yes I know a jillion people play them - have you ever watched them, though? The low B is a thumbrest, it might get 5% of the notes, certainly not 20%.
When you start getting to 8-string guitars, 9-and-10 string basses - "fretted autoharps" - who knows? Fanning might be the only way to work around the basic string limits of .008" to .070" or so for guitars. There are an awful lot of guys playing them in YouTube videos - solo - but they don't seem to be taking over the band business. Though I do wonder if sitting in from of a computer camera tapping away on a 8 or 10-string thing hasn't largely taken over the "start a band" ethos from my high school days. |
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Jan Viljoen
From:
Pretoria, South Africa
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Posted 6 Jun 2014 6:04 am
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Yes David, my opinion too that many fanned players play with few other band members or just a drummer.
Alan, what scale did you build the fanned mandolins?
I do wonder if the 6 string fanned guitar is more popular in a band setup.
I think that there will always be musicians that will try a new instrument and some will get real professional on it.
Just look how quickly the pedal steel became famous.
Very few musicians play lap steel in South Africa.
_________________
Sierra S10, Stage One, Gibson BR4, Framus, Guya 6&8, Hofner lap, Custom mandolins, Keilwerth sax.
Roland Cube 80XL, Peavey112-Valve King and Special, Marshall 100VS. |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 6 Jun 2014 10:12 am
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| Jan Viljoen wrote: |
| ...Alan, what scale did you build the fanned mandolins?... |
I seem to remember 14" at the centre, Of course, with fanned fretboards the scale length is shorter on the treble side than on the bass.
One of the reasons in the old days for fanned frets was that bass strings were difficult to come by, so the only way round that was to make the bass strings longer than the treble. On some instruments they even had a separate pegboard for the bass strings.
Here is a bell cittern that I built about ten years ago.
Ironically, the instrument that would gain most from fanned frets is the steel guitar. Our arms move rather like a windshield wiper, but we have to keep the tone bar at right angles to the neck at all times, and that means that we need continual compensation with our wrists. I reckon that the main reason for steel guitarists to go out of tune is failure to keep the tone bar straight. With a fanned fretboard that would not be necessary.
Of course, since you're playing from above, the frets would be fanned the opposite way to on a guitar or on the cittern above.
One thing that is very important when planning fanned frets is where the convergeance comes. The fret that is at right angles is usually the 10th or 12th, but it can be any of them, and the action is vastly different from one extreme to the other. |
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