# Fanned frets and bending...



## Pablo (Dec 5, 2006)

Have any of you guys playing fanned fret guitars experienced any trouble bending or giving vibrato to notes where the frets are leaning the "wrong" way (i.e. the lower frets, leaning towards the headstock). I'm really interested as I've been contemplating a fanned fret instrument for a while, but am slightly concerned with what effect the fanned frets really would make on my playing.

Cheers

Eske


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## msherman (Dec 6, 2006)

You really won`t notice a difference all that much. Most of the time with string bending, you are bending the string more than a half step. With vibrato, you are really modulating the note slightly sharp, and with fanned frets, this will actually allow for broader modulation. I think you will find that it is more of a non-issue after about a 1/2 hour playing one.


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## rgsss14 (Dec 7, 2006)

Bending itself is no problem. Fanned frets, however were primarily for textbook "thumb behind the neck" playing. If the majority of your playing is "thumb over the neck", you might need to make some adjustments, but it can be done.


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## Pablo (Dec 8, 2006)

msherman said:


> You really won`t notice a difference all that much. Most of the time with string bending, you are bending the string more than a half step. With vibrato, you are really modulating the note slightly sharp, and with fanned frets, this will actually allow for broader modulation. I think you will find that it is more of a non-issue after about a 1/2 hour playing one.


Good to hear... but from frets 1 through 5-9 (wherever the fret is vertical) aren't the leaning frets working _against_ the bend (the fret is going flat, as you try to bend sharp... if you are bending in upwards motion, that is)?

Thanks for your help!

Eske


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## OzzyC (Dec 8, 2006)

Pablo said:


> Good to hear... but from frets 1 through 5-9 (wherever the fret is vertical) aren't the leaning frets working _against_ the bend (the fret is going flat, as you try to bend sharp... if you are bending in upwards motion, that is)?
> 
> Thanks for your help!
> 
> Eske



theres a simple fix for that...
bend the string the other way


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## bostjan (Dec 8, 2006)

The change in length is not as important as the change in tension. It takes a little adjustment to get bends precisely in tune, but this is the case any time you change scale lengths.

As far as the thumb-over-the-top-of-the-fretboard technique, I feel it is not very compatible with extended range guitars as a whole, but I have found myself falling into that position when I'm doing certain chords anyway. If you practice with an open mind and a grain or two of skepticism, you will find that it is easy to adapt to things like compound scale and thumb position easier than you can adjust to changes in string gauge.

When bending the other way, you might have issues on the first two or three strings, but I suppose it's possible, although not recommended.


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## Pablo (Dec 8, 2006)

Thanks man, that's the kind of encouragement a guy like me needs


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## Durero (Dec 8, 2006)

Pablo - I've got a fairly extreme fan (36"-32" scales) with the nut at about 45° and I haven't noticed much of a difference in the feel of the bends compared to straight frets. Like Bostjan says, the angle of the frets doesn't affect the pitch as quickly as the change of tension does when you bend. I can still bend 'upwards' if I want to on the lowest frets.

Another point, if you are designing the specs for your multi-scale guitar, you can choose which fret is the straight one. It doesn't have to be the 12th fret. If you use a lot of open strings and first position playing, then you might want the straight fret to be the 7th or even 5th, so that playing at that end of the fretboard feels very little different from a straight-fret guitar.

On my next prototype I'm going for an even angle between the first fret and the highest fret, meaning that my bridge will be at a steeper angle than the nut, but I expect that this will be quite comfortable for both hands.


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