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A nifty video about string guage...


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Great demo...looks like the 7's passed the test! I thought sure he would break the 1st string! No breakage and they brought lots of new bending sounds to have a 3 whole step bendable blast with. Between the 7's 10's and 13's I think the 10's had the best tone and sound to my ear...I guess that's why I like 10's, but then I only do 1/2 step bends...LOL! :cool:
Take care, Larryz
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I watched the first part of it, up until he bends up 3 steps. Mission accomplished. I don't use 7s but I've put them on guitars, Also 8 through 14 on the first string depending on the player, the tuning and the scale length.

My opinion is that anything somebody likes is great for them. If I had a reason to, I could probably get used to anything. In general, I prefer lighter strings on both electric and acoustic guitars but heavy strings have their place in my world, my 8 string lap steel has pretty heavy strings and I like that tone for it. 23" scale I think, pretty short.

 

I scalloped my fretboard so I could eliminate fretboard friction and enable better finger to string contact. I can bend 3 whole steps and do so here and there.

I use 10-46 D'Addario XT - my new favorite strings.

 

The next and final step for me is going to be a flat radius on the fretboard. I may use ultra-super-extra jumbo frets - All Parts sells them and I have enough right now to fret 2 guitars. You have to order them through a retail outlet, I had Guitar Center get mine for me. They are so tall I might not need to scallop the board.

 

A flat radius allows the lowest possible action and the only limit on string bending is your callouses, strength and if the the string will break.

A scalloped board engenders using a light, relaxed touch on the strings, you have to or you will press them out of tune. In turn, this has reduced "clamp hand" at the end of the gig.

It has also dramatically increased the ease of expressing myself and my music, I can easily do things that were difficult on a standard fretboard.

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It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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A scalloped board engenders using a light, relaxed touch on the strings, you have to or you will press them out of tune. In turn, this has reduced "clamp hand" at the end of the gig. It has also dramatically increased the ease of expressing myself and my music, I can easily do things that were difficult on a standard fretboard.

 

There's a whole Vietnamese folk music style based around cheeseball Teisco-y solid body electric guitars, probably locally made, with very deeply scalloped fretboards. They do insane bends & vibratos on them, often accompanying a singer, often just solo. No chords or double stops, all single note lines. It is fascinating & absolutely non-Western, 100% not influenced by anything ever played on electric from the rock or pop world.

This guy's guitar isn't as weirdly funky as a lot I've seen, but stylistically this is what the tradition sounds like:

Scott Fraser
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There's a whole Vietnamese folk music style based around cheeseball Teisco-y solid body electric guitars, probably locally made, with very deeply scalloped fretboards. They do insane bends & vibratos on them, often accompanying a singer, often just solo. No chords or double stops, all single note lines. It is fascinating & absolutely non-Western, 100% not influenced by anything ever played on electric from the rock or pop world.

This guy's guitar isn't as weirdly funky as a lot I've seen, but stylistically this is what the tradition sounds like:

 

 

Thanks Scot, that's amazing and beautiful!!!!

He is working his vibrato bar big time!!!! Doesn't seem to do much in the way of stretching the strings at the fret the way we Westerners do.

I started a thread quite a while ago in this forum about the Vietnamese Dan Bao instrument, which is wonderful and amazing. Searching for it right now. In the meantime, here is an example of a Western Tune played Vietnamese style. The Dan Bao has one string, pitch is controlled by the lever and by using the wrist to "pop" a harmonic on the string while picking with the fingers. Quite a technique and incredible sound - almost like a theremin.

 

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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Thanks Scot, that's amazing and beautiful!!!!

He is working his vibrato bar big time!!!! Doesn't seem to do much in the way of stretching the strings at the fret the way we Westerners do.

 

No whammy bar, that's all finger vibrato, but instead of side to side bending, he's pushing down into the scallop.

Scott Fraser
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I found it and I see Scott is the first responder!

 

I've done a lot of work, live concert mixing & recording, with Van Anh Vo, a woman who plays dan bau as well as several other Vietnamese traditional instruments. She's based in the San Francisco bay area & is probably the most high profile Vietnamese artist working in the US these days. So I get to see these axes up close. I'm still hoping she can get me hooked up with one of the guitars.

Scott Fraser
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I found it and I see Scott is the first responder!

 

I've done a lot of work, live concert mixing & recording, with Van Anh Vo, a woman who plays dan bau as well as several other Vietnamese traditional instruments. She's based in the San Francisco bay area & is probably the most high profile Vietnamese artist working in the US these days. So I get to see these axes up close. I'm still hoping she can get me hooked up with one of the guitars.

 

That's awesome!

If I could see one for a bit I could replicate the setup. It looks like a Strat variant is fundamental?

 

Tragic but perfect to booger a G&L, they have the smoothest non-locking vibrato arm system that I've tried.

All this makes me want to finish my handmade Tele with non-fine tuner Floyd Rose. I made the body and the neck from lumber, exception being that I purchased an ebony fretboard with the slots cut from Warmoth. I've had it sitting in pieces so long it's embarrasing.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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That's awesome!

If I could see one for a bit I could replicate the setup. It looks like a Strat variant is fundamental?

 

No, a lot of the ones I've seen on YouTube are just crazy weird Teisco-esque creations, often with oversize offset bodies & tons of switches & knobs on them, although they do seem to favor single coils. Here's a great looking axe:

 

Tragic but perfect to booger a G&L, they have the smoothest non-locking vibrato arm system that I've tried.

All this makes me want to finish my handmade Tele with non-fine tuner Floyd Rose. I made the body and the neck from lumber, exception being that I purchased an ebony fretboard with the slots cut from Warmoth. I've had it sitting in pieces so long it's embarrasing.

 

I haven't seen any of those guys using a vibrato bridge, actually using it if the guitar has one. All the bends & vibrato are from digging into the scallop. I'm guessing one could get the same effect with skinny strings on an Yngwie Malmsteen model, but those are stupid expensive, & I'm thinking the Vietnamese version is a deeper cut scallop. Dunno, I've never found any technical info on these instruments. The style is called Vong Co if you want to research it further.

Scott Fraser
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I didn't watch the first video you posted full screen but it looked like he used the bar fairly often, it also looked like he kept it in his hand.

 

You would need really light strings tuned down to be able to do some of those bends without slicing up your fingers. I'm not saying they don't do those things, watching the second video it was clear that he was pressing down on the strings at the fretboard.

 

Anybody can scallop a fretboard. A 1/2" round rasp will get most of the wood out of the way pretty quickly. Then dowels of various sizes with sandpaper rolled around them - 60 grit and incrementally on up to 320 will get you there. I've done 3 or 4 of them, all successful but it's easier to have a good looking final product with a dark wood that doesn't have a finish.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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I didn't watch the first video you posted full screen but it looked like he used the bar fairly often, it also looked like he kept it in his hand.

 

In the last 10 seconds of the video he takes his hands off to wave goodbye to the camera, & you can see there's no bar on his bridge.

 

You would need really light strings tuned down to be able to do some of those bends without slicing up your fingers. I'm not saying they don't do those things, watching the second video it was clear that he was pressing down on the strings at the fretboard.

 

I haven't looked into it deeply but I can tell the low strings are tuned down a bit into baritone territory.

 

Anybody can scallop a fretboard. A 1/2" round rasp will get most of the wood out of the way pretty quickly. Then dowels of various sizes with sandpaper rolled around them - 60 grit and incrementally on up to 320 will get you there. I've done 3 or 4 of them, all successful but it's easier to have a good looking final product with a dark wood that doesn't have a finish.

 

Seems like you can't go very far on a rosewood fingerboard before you hit whatever the neck is made from, so is it preferable on an all maple neck/fingerboard? And isn't the truss rod lurking just about a 1/4" down?

 

p.s. I just checked another video, which shows the fingerboard & left hand vibrato pretty well:

This guy's 6th string is tuned to G#, so three half steps below standard baritone. I couldn't tell how the rest of it is tuned.

Scott Fraser
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I didn't watch the first video you posted full screen but it looked like he used the bar fairly often, it also looked like he kept it in his hand.

 

In the last 10 seconds of the video he takes his hands off to wave goodbye to the camera, & you can see there's no bar on his bridge.

 

You would need really light strings tuned down to be able to do some of those bends without slicing up your fingers. I'm not saying they don't do those things, watching the second video it was clear that he was pressing down on the strings at the fretboard.

 

I haven't looked into it deeply but I can tell the low strings are tuned down a bit into baritone territory.

 

Anybody can scallop a fretboard. A 1/2" round rasp will get most of the wood out of the way pretty quickly. Then dowels of various sizes with sandpaper rolled around them - 60 grit and incrementally on up to 320 will get you there. I've done 3 or 4 of them, all successful but it's easier to have a good looking final product with a dark wood that doesn't have a finish.

 

Seems like you can't go very far on a rosewood fingerboard before you hit whatever the neck is made from, so is it preferable on an all maple neck/fingerboard? And isn't the truss rod lurking just about a 1/4" down?

 

p.s. I just checked another video, which shows the fingerboard & left hand vibrato pretty well:

This guy's 6th string is tuned to G#, so three half steps below standard baritone. I couldn't tell how the rest of it is tuned.

 

 

I'll watch them again, morning brain misses stuff sometimes. Depending on the gauge of strings G# is really low. I've messed about with super low tuned strings many times. The scalloping would reduce or eliminate bumping into other strings and activating them unintentionally.

 

Lordy, another project!!!! I love what the music you shared offers in expression. That fluidity is why I love stringed instruments, there is no other instrument where you actually touch the source of the note like that and can smoothly gliss much higher and lower. Was practicing for tracking with my lap steel last night, you can slide a couple of octaves easily and add subtle or not so subtle variations along the way. Be fun to do crazy stuff with fingers!

 

I've never gone through a fretboard when scalloping. I've used Warmoth necks, they have thicker fingerboards than some of the Fender necks.

I had the maple board necks for quite a while before I decided to scallop one, then another. I sold one of them, not wide enough at the nut or heel.

I did an ebony board for my brother and that turned out beautiful, partly practice and partly it doesn't get stained as easily as maple does.

 

As you can see from the side view photo of the fretboard, I do a graduated scallop with a much deeper scallop near the backside of the fret, where you should be putting your fingers for how I am using them.

I did notice the Vietnamese style of playing uses the center of the frets, that would be a softer touch for that technique.

 

All of the necks I scalloped had super jumbo frets. All Parts has an even taller fretwire, not quite 2x taller than Jascar Super Jumbo or Dunlop 6100 but almost.

That reduces how deep the scalloping needs to be as well.

 

Cool stuff Scott, now I have evil ideas running rampant!!!! :laugh:

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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