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Topic: Steel Guitars Don't Have Fretboards or Machine Heads |
Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 30 Sep 2014 11:15 am |
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In days of yore the terminology was easy. Guitars, banjos, mandolines, lutes, citterns, etc. had fretboards. Violins, 'cellos, double basses, etc. had fingerboards. As a caveat to that, I should mention that, during the Middle Ages, guitars and lutes were built without frets, and the frets were made by the player typing strings around the neck.
Along comes the steel guitar and the terminology gets confused. Early steel guitars were ordinary guitars modified with nut risers, or with new, higher nuts and bridges, but they retained the frets, as do most resonator guitars and Weissenborns today. But modern steel guitars usually have printed position markers, more akin to rulers than fretboards. So they don't have fretboards. More like violins, they have fingerboards.
To add even more to the confusion, some steel guitars are built with frets for appearance sake, although they will never be used.
So what is it, fretboard or fingerboard?  
A similar thing happened to the peghead. In days of yore all string instruments used friction pegs, so that end of the instrument was known as the peghead, usually because it was decorated with a head carved into the end. Then someone started putting wire strings on instruments and they wouldn't stay in tune with friction pegs. The first solution, as is found on harps and pianos to this day, is the rest pin. A head holding the pins would then be a pinhead, and indeed this term is still used for abuse. Then came the geared tuners. So that end of the instrument became the machine head. But technically speaking, a Flamenco guitar has a peghead, whilst a steel-strung guitar has a machine head. All steel guitars have machine heads, except that that end of the steel guitar is not a head. I have yet to see a steel guitar with a head carved into the end. 
Of course, some early steel guitars put the mechanism at the other end of the instrument, something that often confuses eBay sellers when they take photos. of MultiKords backwards. 
...then what about keyless steel guitars? |
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chris ivey
From:
california (deceased)
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Posted 30 Sep 2014 11:46 am
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| neither...they're position markers. |
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Eddie Cunningham
From:
Massachusetts, USA
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Posted 30 Sep 2014 11:55 am ????
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| Alan , You have far too much time on your hands !! Go get a parttime job at McDonalds or Walmart and you will lead a happier life !! ?? Maybe ?? I still enjoy your posts , no matter what !! olde geeze AKA Eddie "C" |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 30 Sep 2014 2:09 pm
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No, Eddie, after 45 years in the slave market I've had enough of working, commuting and worrying. Now I can sit back at my computer and let my mind go wild.  |
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Stuart Legg
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Posted 30 Sep 2014 3:38 pm
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I thought everything on a PSG had the same name.
All I ever hear Bo call anything on his PSG is "#%*@#*% piece of #*%#. |
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Richard Sinkler
From:
aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana
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Posted 30 Sep 2014 4:10 pm
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Hmmm.... And why do we care about this?
_________________
Carter D10 8p/8k, Dekley S10 3p/4k C6 setup,Regal RD40 Dobro, Recording King Professional Dobro, NV400, NV112,Ibanez Gio guitar, Epiphone SG Special (open D slide guitar) . Playing for 54 years and still counting. |
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Barry Blackwood
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Posted 30 Sep 2014 5:05 pm
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| Quote: |
| So what is it, fretboard or fingerboard? |
Since fingers do not touch it, it can't be called a fingerboard, right? 
I think chris ivey has the answer. |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 30 Sep 2014 5:14 pm
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I think we can still call it a fretboard, even if it doesn't have actual frets. After all, it does have the image or appearance of frets on it. 
Mind you, not to skit, but you seem naffed off on colloquial english? |
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Brint Hannay
From:
Maryland, USA
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Posted 30 Sep 2014 7:21 pm
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In my experience, the most common term for the part of a standard guitar (electric or acoustic steel-string, maybe not classical or flamenco?) where the tuning apparati are mounted is "headstock".
"Machine head", in my experience, refers to an individual geared tuning gizmo for one string.
The term I most often see for the structure on a PSG to which the machine heads (as defined above) are mounted is "keyhead".
Keyless PSG, who knows? |
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Stephen Gambrell
From:
Over there
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Posted 30 Sep 2014 7:39 pm
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| "Machine Head" was an old Deep Purple album, wasn't it? |
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Larry Bell
From:
Englewood, Florida
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Mark Eaton
From:
Sonoma County in The Great State Of Northern California
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Posted 1 Oct 2014 7:18 am
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So when showing someone how to play a song is it a good idea to say, "now put your bar on the 8th position marker" or "now go to to the 8th fingerboard marker" as opposed to simply saying "now go to the 8th fret."
No - it would be a bad idea.
Maybe the bigger question is: how do I stop myself from participating in topics like this?
_________________
Mark |
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chris ivey
From:
california (deceased)
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Posted 1 Oct 2014 7:46 am
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| i concede. you win, mark. |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 1 Oct 2014 10:03 am
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| Mark Eaton wrote: |
| ...Maybe the bigger question is: how do I stop myself from participating in topics like this? |
The same way as I stop myself from raising them ...spend less time on the internet.
I often ask myself what I would be doing with all that time I waste on an activity that wasn't available to me twenty years ago. |
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Mark Eaton
From:
Sonoma County in The Great State Of Northern California
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Posted 1 Oct 2014 10:35 am
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| chris ivey wrote: |
| i concede. you win, mark. |
it wasn't a contest Chris - I don't think I'm going out on much of a limb in guessing that if you are showing someone how to play something you don't refer to it with a pair of words consisting of five syllables either when the word "fret" would get the job done.
_________________
Mark |
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John Billings
From:
Ohio, USA
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Posted 1 Oct 2014 11:49 am
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| It's a two dimensional fret! Alan is from a different dimension! 8^) |
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Stuart Legg
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Posted 2 Oct 2014 8:34 am
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| Don't fret about it!!! |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 2 Oct 2014 11:40 am
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I don't.  |
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Jeff Scott Brown
From:
O'Fallon Missouri, USA
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Posted 2 Oct 2014 5:19 pm
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| Alan Brookes wrote: |
I often ask myself what I would be doing with all that time I waste on an activity that wasn't available to me twenty years ago. |
I have to go back more than twenty years before I can escape the e-communication. Twenty years ago was a time when I had a lot more free time, and much of it was spent on BBS and usenet groups. Those were the closest thing to something like SGF for that era. 
_________________
GFI Ultra S10 Keyless
Peavey Nashville 112
Goodrich L120, BJS, Peterson StroboPlus HD |
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