I am getting on in years now and notice that I have some joint pain in the last joint in my two index fingers due to some mild injury to these two joints.

I am considering scalloping one of my Squire strats to see if playing a scalloped fretboard eliminates some of the stress on my finger joints. Sometimes I find myself pressing the strings against the freatboard more than necessary.

You guys that play scalloped boards, do you find any difference on stress and endurance of you hands?

Thanks in advance
OL

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I remember when we were free!

Sorry about your injuries. I have lots more finger pains than I used to, but fortunately they're fleeting and variable so far.

I've never played a scalloped board. But I've read that some people never get used to them -- that they squeeze everything out of tune all the time.

And you can retrain your fingers on regular boards. Take the practice time that you would have needed to adapt to a scalloped board and use it to really concentrate on squeezing as lightly as possible on your existing boards.

If you really need a training aid, try super-light strings. If you squeeze too hard on those they'll go way sharp, even with low frets. String up one of your Strats with Extra Super Ultra Slinkies and work at not squeezing chords out of tune -- that'll be about as hard as scallops with your normal strings. I've got a guitar with a maxed out truss rod that I string with lighter than my usual strings -- in some ways it's more work than heavier strings because it takes a much more controlled and restrained touch. But lighter strings put much less physical stress on your joints and might be good for you.

And/or go the other way. I have heavy strings on my acoustic and my jazzbox, and they inspire me to play as efficiently as possible. They're enough of a workout that I try not to waste any energy fretting sloppily or squeezing any harder than I need to, all four fingers. For me, that translates into more even, consistent, precise fretting when I go back to my main guitars. And I find that building up my finger strength on heavier strings takes all the struggle out of playing my regular strings -- I'm more in control and feel less need to mash the strings. But you probably shouldn't work an injured finger too hard. I'm not a physical therapist -- please be cautious.

Ultimately, your expressed/implied goal is to fret more consistently and efficiently -- to not squeeze any harder with your index finger than you need to. The key to achieving that is focused practicing and repetition. Fretting as lightly as possible has to become habitual -- natural feeling.

A scalloped fretboard will force you to practice enough to achieve that, but so would drastically lighter or heavier strings. And those wouldn't cost much, and they'd be completely reversible -- you can put your regular strings back on. And really, you can put in about the same amount of practice with your regular strings and lighten your touch just as much.

Another thing to consider is what you play, not just how you play. To favor your injured index finger, you could try different chord voicings and different fingerings. Substitute 3 or 4 fretted notes for barre chords, play voicings in different positions, use your middle finger for big bends and vibrato in places where you'd habitually use your index finger, things like that.

Hi! I just got my first Fender Strat with a scalloped rosewood fretboard.
I find it easier to play lighter and not press as hard. IMHO of little experience,
I find that on normal fretboards I press hard enough, and then un-neededly
extra hard to unnecessarily push harder into the board = over stress.

I find that on my scalloped fretboard that I hit the right amount of pressure
before I want to continuely press harder. So, I stop short with less stress.
My thinking is that this will carry back to my normal fretboard playing.
Toppscore

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