How To Scallop a Guitar Fretboard

How To Scallop a Guitar Fretboard - DIY

Рет қаралды 22,841

10 ай бұрын

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Пікірлер: 90

@LaverneLovatt 10 ай бұрын

If you make the first cut in the center of the space with a triangle file, the round file will have an easier time tracking in subsequent cuts. Carvers often use a sawcut for startin round grooves for spirals

@timsway 10 ай бұрын

good tip! I used a knife but it wasn't wide enough to really grab the rasp.

@nasapayrollsystem8701 6 ай бұрын

Got it ..Good idea

@bmint 4 ай бұрын

This right here cut my time in half.. thank you so much!

@starchild692 Ай бұрын

Good point!

@SixStringOverdose 2 ай бұрын

One small tip: you were working by looking at the side dots, so that side of the fretboard is probably evenly scalloped, but the side we saw (facing the camera) has very uneven depths in the scallops, as you can see at 02:08 and yes, I know the job was far from done, but I see that unevenness stayed uncorrected until the end. So it's good to keep checking often on both sides to make sure not only both sides are symmetric, but also that all frets are even as you go from one to another (up and down). Cheers!

@michaelb.42112 10 ай бұрын

That looks EXHAUSTING, Tim. Great job !

@DRDINOMEOW 5 ай бұрын

He is using files at least… I have nothing but freaking 60 grit sand paper.. 😂 just called it quits for the day!

@robgad2271 9 ай бұрын

That works Tim, but thee are two refining points to point out for you here. One is before you start brush on two or more coats of clear enamel or lacquer over the frets so you have an instant visual indicator if you get too close or briefly graze them. Two,in the jigging you made to mount the neck down, the old world pros would have made wooden guides in the jig on both sides to also have sight and feel indicators so you will know how level or how deep you are going on your scallops. Cheers.

@timsway 9 ай бұрын

excellent tips

@BrianAuer 2 ай бұрын

I did something similar although I used tape on the sides to match depth evenly all the way through the neck.

@pileofstuff 10 ай бұрын

The "arrowhead" of the fret marker is a cool looking "happy accident"

@timsway 10 ай бұрын

I was bummed at first but then I kinda liked it. The 12th fret markers are not perfectly parallel so that bummed me out a little, trying to make the "arrowheads" look matched.

@rauschguitars 10 ай бұрын

I've always been curious about how it would feel to play a scalloped fretboard, but not curious enough to do it to one of my guitars. It looks easy enough to do, but there's no going back if you don't like it.

@timsway 10 ай бұрын

right. that's why this guy just bought a cheap neck to try it on, so not a lot lost if he doesn't like it.

@mafw5572 8 ай бұрын

I scalloped one of my guitars on the entire fretboard, now is hard to go back. At first i hated it, but a month later it became my favourite guitar

@riffsthatkill2180 6 ай бұрын

It doesn't really change the tone at all, just allows your fingers to grab the strings more for bends. It doesn't allow you to play faster or slow you down, it just gives you more room for the flesh of your finger to get under the string without the wood between the frets governing how much flesh can go under.

@JL-dz8sj 2 ай бұрын

In my experience going that deep isn't really needed, nonetheless great visual aid. I want to get a few of my spare necks scalloped soon and it's been a while since my last attempt.

@StealthParrot 8 ай бұрын

My latest guitar kit is a Solo Music Gear JEM style which has a couple of things that aren't accurate to the original Steve Vai JEM ... scalloped frets and the carved lions claw for the Floyd trem. I'm watching this trying to convince myself I have the nerve to do it haha. Thanks.

@brentstewart59 10 ай бұрын

Very cool Im definetly doing this

@jamesnewman9547 10 ай бұрын

I literally bought a cheap used guitar to do this with, files, clamps, etc... about 4 years ago, and couldn't bring myself to do it. The nail bed on a couple of my fretting fingers is all the way forward, and unless I've literally clipped them back and filed them today, they can tend to dig in to the fret board. I find myself playing worse to try to avoid it. Already using jumbo frets, but hoping that a scalloped fret board would give just that little more room, even if it makes things a bit more difficult. Thanks for the concise video!

@bmint 4 ай бұрын

You play guitar and have nails 😂 Lucky 😢

@RaccoonHenry 10 ай бұрын

it makes sense for a scalloped "shredder" neck to have a reverse headstock, it's more comfortable to tune. a lot of sheedders have their custom guitars built this way!

@timsway 10 ай бұрын

true!

@unacuentadeyoutube13 3 ай бұрын

yeah, but I guess it has less tuning stability, as the thicker strings are the ones with the more extra length past the nut

@Bflatest 5 ай бұрын

A mate of mine did this but he did way more shallow and said it gives him the feel he wanted

@garagemonkeysan 10 ай бұрын

Great video. Steady hands. Awesome work. I'm surprised about the depth of those bear claw etchings. Mahalo for sharing! : )

@timsway 10 ай бұрын

yea, me too!

@Mark-bm5nk 7 ай бұрын

How did they do that? It seems very deep.

@dfbess 10 ай бұрын

What does scalloping do for the instrument? And love the choice of music for the video..

@timsway 10 ай бұрын

It’s supposed to reduce friction and speed you up a little.

@markgordon4368 10 ай бұрын

Splendid 😊

@peterrahill9263 10 ай бұрын

10th upward thumb of LIKEness.

@nasapayrollsystem8701 6 ай бұрын

Question. How far down does your curve go ? I think to avoid the string touching the wood , you dont have to go that far . ... would it be a good idea to stick a line of tape on the side as a depth indicator ? Or do the narrower frets go down deeper than the wider frets ?

@timsway 6 ай бұрын

all good questions! I just did it by eye to what looked right from fret to fret and all together.

@matthewotremba9230 Ай бұрын

I did an entire board Made a band saw type of tool to ride the bench with sanding belts Umbrella ribs to protect frets Came out great But , why do the last frets where there is absolutely no drag on your fingers from the board at all Makes no sense

@Javier-qk7ms 9 ай бұрын

How well does the 22 fret hold? I see it is kind of an extension hanging. I would like trying this with a Fender replacement neck.

@timsway 9 ай бұрын

the part I carved is still over the heel block. there is wood that extends beyond the 22 fret, but I didn't scallop that.

@Birkguitars 10 ай бұрын

I have bought some cheap second hand guitars to try this sort of thing with but one point I can't seem to resolve is how deep to make the scallops. The only scalloped neck I have ever played was over 30 years ago at a guitar show in west London. I can't even remember the brand now but from memory is was about £1500 which I think was almost twice the price of a Les Paul at the time. The person on the stand asked what I thought of it and my initial impression was that it would make me a better player technically because I realised that I was not feeling for the fretboard when pressing the strings down. I have seen comments that scalloping changes the tone because the string is not in contact with the wood but I think something different is happening. I found that I was not pressing on as hard so could play faster but I needed to up my game on getting my fingers in exactly the right position. So my response to the question was firstly that it was nearly three months salary at the time so way beyond my means but as an instrument had I been a professional guitar player I would definitely have been adding it to my quiver because it would demand that I improve my technique. Now many decades later I am going to try it and see if I was right. But it would still be helpful if someone could help decide how deep I go. I think that so long as it is deep enough to remove the feeling of pressing against the fretboard rather than the frets it will work, but how deep is that? Some experimentation required methinks.

@timsway 10 ай бұрын

I just copied the depth I saw in pictures, about halfway through the thickness of the fingerboard.

@manofthewest67 9 ай бұрын

Hey Tim, short story, i had a guitar and now i don't, my guess is gravity no longer worked in my friends car and it just floated away, i was kinda hoping that you had a set of those 'scumbucker pickups' knocking about somewhere, i have almost everything i need to build a partscaster guitar, just missing tele style bridge, machine heads\tuning keys and pickups, would love to try yours if you still have them, love to all, will send pic when finished, keep up the good content, from a guitarless guitarist in the uk.

@timsway 9 ай бұрын

Gravity storms are a problem. I have some pickups in my store at newperspectivesmusic.com. I think I have a couple nailbuckers and railbuckers in stock? Shipping to UK might be a deterrent tho :(

@MLoerAudio 10 ай бұрын

Dope!

@ScuzCuz 6 ай бұрын

is it true a scalloped fret board makes for easier shredding??

@schm4704 10 ай бұрын

Wow, that takes nerves of steel 😊. I'd ding up the frets badly if I attempted that.

@timsway 10 ай бұрын

Oh yea, you gotta sand and polish the frets again when you're done.

@skelperx9877 7 ай бұрын

How do you know if youve filed too far? Legit thinking of doing this to one of my guitars so any help is appreciated.

@timsway 7 ай бұрын

you just gotta be careful, take your time and check regularly. Usually you can see the fingerboard wood seam against the neck, just don't go past that!

@Jim68930 3 ай бұрын

Hello sir, is there any chance of covering (filling) a scalloped guitar fret? Coz I just made a huge mistake by scalloping my guitar! I'm from India.

@timsway 3 ай бұрын

If you square off the spaces you could cut slots of wood to refill them, but my guess would be it would be easier to remove the entire fretboard and make a new one

@larrysteinke1839 6 ай бұрын

those lasered fret markers must have been cut pretty deep to not have disappeared after all the filing.

@timsway 6 ай бұрын

no kidding. I couldn't believe it

@billstolz9587 10 ай бұрын

What is the benefit of scalloping the neck🎸

@timsway 10 ай бұрын

good question! lol. The theory is it reduces friction between your fingers and the wood so you can play faster and smoother. I certainly have never been fast or smooth enough to notice a difference!

@LightBranches 10 ай бұрын

@@timswayit’s also a cool alternative way of adding some vibrato to your tunes, by pushing down on the string.

@gothridercreations 10 ай бұрын

That really confused me until you showed the top view and could see you filed through the side dots.... looked like there were random voids under the fretboard... 😂

@timsway 10 ай бұрын

I can't believe how deep the dog print markers are, too! still 100% visible!

@guitarmann3343 8 ай бұрын

Can someone please tell if you have a scalloped fretboard, is the guitar able to be refreted after the frets are worn out completely? I've been thinking about buying a yjm strat ,but the thought of the neck being useless after the frets are worn is holding me back.

@timsway 8 ай бұрын

I'm sure it's technically possible, but probably a huge PIA.

@guitarmann3343 8 ай бұрын

@@timsway yes that's what I was thinking. Thanks!

@Nghilifa 7 ай бұрын

It's possible, but like @timsway said, it'd probably a huge PIA. That said, Yngwie Malmsteen did refret his "The Duck" strat which he scalloped himself in the early 90s. Throughout the 80s, it had the original vintage fretwire, but he had it refretted when they wore down (or he simply may have wanted to try a larger fretwire). So it's not an impossible task.

@greysonguitar8453 10 ай бұрын

Now I know I’ve made it in the guitar world! 😂

@francobuzzetti9424 10 ай бұрын

how is re-fretting a scalloped neck? did anybody try?

@timsway 10 ай бұрын

I fretted scalloped necks I made from scratch on the cnc and it was not hard. I imagine it would be slightly more stressful doing it on something like this.

@ErickvdK 9 ай бұрын

I thought I saw a beautiful hand stitched rasp...😊

@kevinmiller39 3 ай бұрын

What’s that blue tape do

@timsway 3 ай бұрын

just helps protect the fingerboard while working on the frets

@jaxone1259 10 ай бұрын

You should go to a Guitar shop and try out a guitar that already has a scaloped fretboard so you can see if you like it first. I always wondered why unless your going after a Sitar sound looks like it would be to easy to accidently raise the pitch of a note with a scalloped fretboard now I have to try one out LOL. Thanks for the video

@timsway 10 ай бұрын

the client is left handed so going to a guitar store to try it out isn't as easy for him. I made a few pipas with radically scalloped fingerboards you might find interesting. Vids on this channel.

@deathomega6208 2 ай бұрын

Has anybody thought to do this to a bass guitar?

@whatarefriends4 7 ай бұрын

Yeah I don’t have that kinda patience

@timsway 7 ай бұрын

It really only took about an hour.

@SSRT_JubyDuby8742 10 ай бұрын

Nice 👏 Like deployed 👍

@bmint 4 ай бұрын

Do you ever get hate? I’m no saint and I’ve broken guitars accidentally.. I fixed them wrong and that caused some seriously well targeted word attacks.. I’m still not comfortable messing with guitars, not because I’m afraid I’ll break something.. I start with broken items.. I’m just afraid of the backlash.. If I’m not alone, how do you deal with it?

@timsway 4 ай бұрын

Oh man, you just asked for an essay! haha! Of course I do! Just read the comments on this video alone! I'm sure there's some in there. lol. It is literally impossible to please or be liked by everyone - especially when there are so many people who just want to hate for hate's sake and no real reason. But "hate" is such a broad term. First, you need to categorize it a little. If someone is paying you and they hate the job you've done, that is dissatisfaction. But don't take it as a personal "hate," use it as the professional motivation it is and should be to be better! It's up to you to make it right and this is the hardest one to deal with, but inevitable in a life of forward movement. I built my career on saying "yes" to things I didn't know how to do so I could learn and grow. There were certainly mistakes made. Still are! lol. And I feel terrible about every one. But they also are big steps in my development of skills and knowledge. My other option was to not leave my comfort zone and not learn and grow, which seems like not living to me. Me today "hates" choices I made 10 years ago, with less info, experience and tools. But of course I wouldn't write hateful things to me, because I'm not an asshole! And to be clear, today, if I know something is a very valuable or very sentimental piece and I'm not sure if I can do it, I probably won't. I'll help them find someone better suited to the job or go and learn how first. Thanks KZfaq :) Ok, so that's the bad news, but here's the good news. THAT IS THE ONLY HATE THAT MATTERS!!! Well, besides maybe displeasing a spouse or loved one, of course, but that's not hate either, it's disappointment. All other versions of hate are insignificant and meaningless. Once I chopped up a chair that I pulled from a dumpster into a new chair and got inundated with upset comments because they considered that chair a valuable, historical artifact. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't, but I saved it in a literal dumpster so anything I did to it was better than what was going to happen to it!!! The customer loved it. Perspective. Negative, hateful comments on the internet are written by small, unhappy people - or bots/people intentionally trying to stir dissension. They should have no meaning or impact. Most of these people would never speak in person as they do here and if they did say thew things they write, you'd probably think they were a crazy person, feel sorry for them and walk away. So why should that person's thoughts alter how you think of yourself? Sometimes you'll get hate from "experts" who "know more than you." Something I've found over the years is the people who are actually skilled at something and have knowledge to share, do so without being hateful or insulting. So I listen to them. I'm always skeptical of or disinterested in the skills and advice of an angry, hate-filled person. Add them to the ignore list, too! Seek advice from the people who know things AND aren't assholes instead. For example, if I saw work you did that I knew was "wrong," I would not say, "You did it wrong. You ruined it. You're dumb," etc. I'd recognize the fact that you repaired something that was broken and offer advice for other things to try in the future. "Nice! Next time, if you use this glue instead of that screw..." etc. Because I am not, or at least I try not to be, an asshole. lol Now sometimes these haters "get lucky" in their spray of insults and hit on something that you are sensitive about or trying to improve upon. It's almost always physical appearance and it hurts every time. How silly and vein are we humans? lol I also get people complaining about my guitar playing all the time, saying how much I suck. But there will be 5 comments from people saying how much they enjoy my playing but for some reason I only remember the one negative one, right? This is encoded in our DNA to keep us alive from millennia ago. Hard to resist lizard brain function, but we must learn to shake it off. Easier said than done, I know. In reality all the comments, positive and negative, should have equal value to your sense of self worth and happiness - ABSOLUTELY NONE! If you rely on the positive comments to feel validated, then you must also give value to the negative ones, and those we know have no value, so... Now don't get me wrong, I really appreciate it when people take the time to write nice things under my videos (most of my comments are) but you'll see I don't write them novels! lol. What I appreciate and am thankful for is that people take the time to view my work and even more time to say they liked it. That's what means something to me, and I've gotten to "know" many of these people over the years so it is a dialogue among friends. But "User42069" saying "good job!" affects my self worth as much as "User69420" saying "you suck." Not at all. I can't base satisfaction of my work on the thoughts of strangers, positive or negative. I have to be satisfied with it myself. Honestly I rarely am, as I am a seeker, but I see each thing I do as progress towards doing it better. Haters can hate it, lovers can love it, but it is up to me how I feel about me. I share it all here not for the affirmation or troll fights, but to spread my message of living and making small and sustainably, to document my work for people who care, share my learning and mistakes to hopefully help others, and record my knowledge and experience so it doesn't die with me and can continue to be useful. Oh, and for a little extra advertisement of my work and a few bucks on patreon.com/timsway to help offset the time it takes me to film. And occasionally, I get comments such as yours where I can theorize on some of the things I've learned over the years in written form, add it to the registry, and hopefully help you and maybe a few other people put the "self" back in "self worth" that the internet so actively tries to take away.

@bmint 4 ай бұрын

@@timswaythat is a lot to take in.. and it is so wise.. Thank you.. I truly needed that right now.. thank you 🙏

@Mark-bm5nk 7 ай бұрын

How did the pawprints stay on after such deep filing?

@timsway 7 ай бұрын

good question! lol

@MangledGuitars 10 ай бұрын

❤😊❤

@sgsax 10 ай бұрын

Everybody wants to be Yngwie I guess. To each their own. Lucky those fret markers went so deep. Fun little side quest here. Thanks for sharing!

@sapelesteve 10 ай бұрын

I don't see the need or purpose of doing that but to each his own I guess! 🤔🤔🎸🎸

@DMCSEWS 10 ай бұрын

Why would anyone want a scalloped fretboard?

@timsway 10 ай бұрын

It's supposed to reduce friction and make you play faster. I don't think I've ever been fast enough to notice that kind of difference but some shredders swear by it.

@Nghilifa 7 ай бұрын

It removes the friction between your fingers and the fretboard, which allows for better control of the strings, as far as vibrato and string bending are concerned. It doesn't really make you a faster player though. It's mainly for vibrato & bending (and no, jumbo frets do not feel the same).

@VicentePradoJunior 4 ай бұрын

I got one to teach myself how to play with a "light touch". Too much pressure in the left hand and you will be out of tune

@e-collarlesswolfdogs5640 Ай бұрын

To grab the notes by the balls 💪🏻🎶