Just curious to what everyone thinks of scallopped boards? The entire board? last 4 or 12 frets? or do you hate them?

why are you asking??

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because Im curious as to what others think.

ive scallopped the last 12 frets of my ibanez 7 and will eventually get around to the other 12.
Just most of the people Ive met where I live have never really seen or played or even heard of a scallopped fret board and I dont really get to hear too much of what others have to say about them.

or even if anyone has any hints/tips/tricks for scallopping a board they would be much appreciated. Though I know in any case its going to take huge amounts of patience and care to finish the board.

I have a Hamer Chapparal USA model from the late 80s that I bought used with the 12th fret up scalloped. Must have been a custom job as i've never seen a stock Hamer with scallops. I like it but it's my only guitar so I don't have a choice.

You might want to practice on cheap junk necks first. I have no idea how to do it but i'm sure there are resources out there.

technically, even if you're not touching with fret board, the frets get really dirty really fast unless you seal em.

honestly, ive never seen one in real life, but i believe yngwie malmsteen plays with one.

and i heard they are much tougher to play than normal fret boards. you should ask some pro luthier for more advice

good luck

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seal them?

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wood sealer

GREETINGS,
I've had two guitars with scalloped necks: one I did myself and the second was a 94 YJM strat I had for a few years, that had all the frets scalloped.

I did it on my own guitar a few months before buying the malmsteen one. I'd instinctively ran them a bit deeper and wider than those of the YJM guitar though, but I prefered to play it on that. My top tip for scalloping your own neck is to get three different gradients of sandpaper, starting with the roughest and finishing with the finest. Simply wrap it around an approprriate sized pen that will leave the correct contours in the face of the neck and sand away. Keep an eye that you're doing it level (i.e. so it isn't far deeper on the high e string than the low string).

They arn't much harder to play to be honest, the main thing you'll notice is a tighter tone and much more response to bending notes and vibrato, but it does sound somewhat weaker for chugging and beefier stuff

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Those were the reasons I'd figured Malmsteen did it in the first place, I mean why fuck around like that if it's just harder to play?

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Yeah scalloping should cut down on slightly on the meatiness of the guitar's sound, as well as sustain a little bit, but who needs sustain if you're scalloping a fretboard, you're probably gonna shred on it right?

Also chords are kinda hard to pull of correctly without slightly bending em out of tune if you do a full scallop.

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but you can vibrate full chords, that seems cool to me.

never playd a scallop fretboard before, ill probaly wont liek it, unless it isnt scalloped to deep, ive seen a few scallopguitars wich were scalloped so ridiciloously sdeep that it could only play liek shit, but i can imagine a slight scallop being realy nice to play some stuff on.

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You don't have to scallop the whole fretboard either. Like I said, my Hamer is only from the 12 fret and up.

I'd like to have a scalloped/partial scalloped fretboard or just to play one. I heard sweeping and bending are alot smoother. I'd like to know what that feels like.

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Ive already got the last 12 done on my 7 string, Im still trying to get the urge to finish the board. Since Ive moved across the country I dont have a second guitar so Id have to take apart the only one I have and Im not ready to do that quite yet.
so far I perfer a scallopped board to an unscallopped one, but ive yet to actually play on one with the full board done.
Eventually though

Something I should point out: you don't alter your style in order to play a scalloped fretboard, it just enhances the accuracy to which you have to place your finger around the fret to get a decent sound. You don't vibrato/bend just by pressing the string into the scallop, just the diffrent shape allows for more movement. Things like tapping and legato etc seem a whole lot easier on it due to this. I'm always skeptical that this 'harder to play' thing is a myth started from clueless tabcrawler kids to be honest.

The tone does weaken slightly, but generally you'll notice scalloped necks being with shitty single coil strats with bodies that simply can't accomodate a full steak and offer only a repressed mincey tone, giving the illusion that scallops induce the scratchy weakness you're probably thinking of.

Sweeping does feel a lot smoother, but only because your fingers are in contact with the string. The aim of the scallop seemed very much just to avoid the friction between your fingers and the actual fretboard. That factor did help add clarity to sweeping etc though. I'll have to get my old scalloped warlock back from my other house though to have a fuck around. I did notice though that the tone is mainly the resonance from the string, and not through the neck, which is probably one of the factors that adds to the compression associated scalloped shredders

My advice is though, if you really want to try it, just look into doing a decent job at it on an old guitar and scallop frets 6 - 24, that way you have 0-5 left normal for chords etc, aswell as having a three octave range of unadulterated frets

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Im not a hundred percent but I think that when you have XJumbo frets it gives a sort of scaollped like effect to the guitar because of the fretts being so high.

You're a faggot.



























I like 12 fret+ scallops but if its the whole fretboard it gets in the way of my intense rhythmic riffs. I like to grip/punch the power chords with my left hand and you can't thrash like that with scallopped -12fret.

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Maybe you can't, but isn't something most with half-decent left hand technique seem to complain about. You probably just pull your fingers too brutally far away when playing if that's a problem

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I'm starting a new project. I'm going to scallop the upper 12 frets of a POS guitar neck i got lying around. I'm dying to experience the scalloped playability.

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I concur.

I have used XJ fret for years and if you look closely at the distance between the the fretboard and the fresh of your fingers while fretting XJ's you will see they don't make contact. You are forced to use the correct amount of fretting pressure to achieve proper pitch and tone. To much pressure and everything will sound sharp. To little pressure and the note will not sustain correctly.

I have a medium touch if not a heavy-light touch when I play. Any more or less and I wouldn't be able to use XJ frets. Scallopped frets make no difference to me. I have tried a few scallopped guitars and they feel no different than my guitars with XJ frets.

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I also concur...

The reason why people like Malmsteen have scalloped fretboards is because the frets on Strats are really small, so it hinders playability because your fingers touch the fretboard aswell as the string, with Jumbo/ XJ frets you wil never ever need to scallop the fretboard. It's just a waste of time because it actually makes no difference.

Anyways, if you have small frets, wouldn't it just be easier to adjust your left hand technique and play with lighter touches when shredding?

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So no difference WHATSOEVER? K, I'm off to scallop my frets halfway through the fucking maple.

Be sure to scallope down until you hit the truss rod

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And if your neck doesn't snap under the string tension due to the loss of all that wood mass, post some pics!

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What exactly is scalloping? Can someone tell me?

It's when you remove some of the wood from inbetween the frets.

Scalloped frets

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