Hello all,
I have recently found a how-to on scalloping your fretboard. I know that Yngwie Malmsteen uses it and Steve Vai has the last four frets on his scalloped, but what is your guy's opinion on it? Is it useful, I have heard that it is easier to bend and play vibratos and that it MAY improve your speed which is just subjective to the player. But the drawback of possibly pressing too hard on the string and accidentally bending the note is a major one.
So, what is your guy's opinions?
Thanks in advanced...

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Playing your guitar is an addiction after your first riff you just can't stop. Kind of like raisins you taste one then eat them by the handful.
-Oldpat

Just a personal preference, like any thing. Some people like being able to feel the note more and have more control over it.

Myself, I don't like them. In fact, I prefer the exact opposite - barely any frets, which I tend to "feel" the notes better on and play faster. I'm more into a fretless feel than a sitar.

I had a MIM Strat scalloped about a year ago. I don't think this is something you want to attempt yourself.

Playing it does require a slightly lighter touch but bending and vibrato is much easier and more controlled.

If you have a problem with barre chords like I do, then it will help there as well.

All in all I can't say it would be my choice as the only guitar, but as a second or third it is quite nice to have for a change up. If you can get your hands on a Malmsteen to play for an hour or so, you should be able to determine if it is something you would grow into liking.

I don’t know that I would scallop one myself but that’s just me. I can say I do have a strat (Malmsteen) with the scalloped board and it is the heat. I love it and the more I play it the more I can accomplish with it and love it even more.
It takes a bit of getting used to but once you do it is something special. I’m glad it’s not my only guitar but that is because the pickups are real low power which makes for a huge volume difference when swapping guitars out at like a gig or something and I really am a hum-bucker fan and the strat has single coils.
Like mentioned before the scalloped board makes it Bar Chords far more easy to play and bending, hammer on’s and vibrato is just something special. Some things are harder to do like very rapid runs with hammer on and pulls. Legato can also be tricky to pull out sounding clean on the scalloped fret board. Many people are worried about fretting too hard and causing the notes to fall sharp. I say fooey; I don’t believe that. Yes the scalloped does force you to play softer (which is a good thing). The lighter the touch the more relaxed your hand is causing your playing to be faster and way more fluid, (How is that bad?) secondly you very well could make notes sharp but only on the first 3 maybe 4 frets but would have to be squeezing the string to the frets extremely hard (super iron hand grip). My opinion is that if you have that little discipline than your not a guitar player and should be playing the trumpet with that grip.
Again I am glad it is not my only guitar; (BUT) if I could only have one guitar for the rest of my life or stranded on an island or something……Bet your booty I would have one that was scalloped..

Cheers
Bill

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(80’s Hair Metal) = A snapshot in time before Grunge ruined Rock & Roll forever!!!!

Do not even try to attempt this yourself the firs time,as you most certainly will ruin your neck. I know you might of heard Yngwie say he did but what is there Yngwie cant do .lol I personally dont like them and friends who have crossed over cant play anything else no more. So play one and make sure it is for you before anything .

[img][img]http://i419.photobucket.com/albums/pp271/paulgb/fenderumar09022-1.jpg[/img] This is the scalloping station at fender, this guy does all the malmsteen sigs ,notice the frett size , its alot wider than a standard strat,as said before you may want to get professional opinions , I havent played one but the guitarist I know that do love them[/img]

Scalloped fretboards freak me out ...

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Laughing out loud with fear and hope, I have a desperate plan ...

I have done scalloping on several guitars and I can say the crossover is a little exaggerated IMHO. I mean it all depends on how light your initial touch is. If you're like me, as in, have a super light touch and picks last with you for years without showing any wear then yeah it wouldn't be hard for you to play scalloped frets and it does have some advantages.

It won't phenomenally change your playing style or anything. It does look cool and it does have some advantages. But if you don't have a couple of cheap necks to practice your scalloping on (like I personally did before I started doing them for my guitars or get paid to do them for others) then don't bother. You'll DEFINITELY ruin it on ur first try.

The Vai scalloping is a walk in the park. Got it right (and i'm not bragging, it's THAT easy cause I actually got it done much better than the indonesian Vai models) from the first time. All you need to do the last 4 frets is some sand paper, a small round rasp and a LOT of patience (also care not to go through the inlays). It is also preferable to have a couple of fret restoration tools to fix the damage to the frets cause lets face it, you'll DEFINITELY scratch the frets with sand paper (and/or rasp) no matter how careful you are. I recommend the stewmac diamond recrowning file. If you're not that big on cash, the normal one would do but you need to sand and polish the frets properly after.

However the fretwork is not needed unless you REALLY damage a fret. Whcih is unlikely if you're careful. You will, however, need to polish them again after scratching them with sand paper. Unless someone found a genius way to properly mask them for protection.

You will need at least 6 rasps (round for the small sizes, half round for the bigger sizes) to do the full neck scallop. You really NEED to practice first.

If you need further help on this (if you decide to do it yourself, that is) feel free to PM me and I'll try to help you the best I can.

Cheers,
Sami

WOW, thank you for all the information!!
If I were to do it on my own, I would most likely do just the last four or so frets...

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Playing your guitar is an addiction after your first riff you just can't stop. Kind of like raisins you taste one then eat them by the handful.
-Oldpat

Anytime! and just one advice, watch out and go slowly. Check your progress VERY often as those markers might not be as deeply set as you might think. So if its a rough rasp, check every 3-4 pulls. And again, go smoothly! Going too slow and with too much pressure would dig deep into the fretboard which will make things harder to smoothen out, so medium speed, medium touch should be perfect with almost any rasp "grit".

I learned that the hard way when I started a couple of years ago being the short tempered Syrian I am haha.

Depends on what style you play too. True, a light touch can make you play more fluid and fast, but unless you're a metal only guitar or jazz, your touch is going to go though different tensions.

For instance, if I'm playing fast, I'll pick and fret lighter. When I'm playing howling blues, and some aggressive rock, you just can't get that ballsy tone sissy-picking the notes. And too weak a touch sounds like a pretty little butterfly, which might not be the tone you're looking for.

Yes of course. However, for hte sake of clarification only, I wasn't talking about your playing style in my previous post, I was only talking about the way you should use hte rasp I don't know why I have this feeling that you got mixed up (maybe I wasn't clear hehe)

I can see the attraction in scalloped fingerboard, but wouldn't try a DIY job... you'll almost certainly just wreck it!

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