The Benefits of Fanned Frets

[opprobrium_9]

So just wondering... what are they?  I think i might want to do this on my next guitar, but maybe not depending on the difficulty and possible pros and cons.  Any help?  (Wez i know you'll be up on this)

[plastercaster]

I suppose the advantage would be a longer scale length for the bass strings, so you get a tighter sound, whilst finding big jumps on the high E and B string easier.
I think you would need to adjust to playing on them, but that depends on what type of player you are and how big the fan is.

[WezV]

Check out Oli's thread for an inprogress ff guitar

apparently its quite easy to adjust to, but we will see very soon - i have my first one being sprayed at the moment!!! :shock: needs to be finished by the end of august

It gives you a better balance in tension between the strings which is especially helpfull if you are down tuning and it also means the frets will follow the natural movement of the hand better- - - we will see!

Its really something that isnt needed as much on guitars but when you get onto extended range basses it becomes pretty essential if you want to achieve a good tension on the low strings and avoid farty sounding bass strings (i hate most factory made 5 strings for the farty low B).

its quite easy to do as you essentially choose a scale length for the two outside strings and join the dots!  I have a proper tutorial for doing it i will be releasing in a month or two!

here is a really good method :
http://www.doolinguitars.com/articles/novax/

i was going to do it that way but my first ff is an experiment so i couldnt be bothered making two jigs so i did it a much simpler way!

important considerations are :
* the two scale lengths
* which fret is perpendicular to the centre line
* Bridge

1.  I have gone for a gibson scale on the treble and classical 26" scale on the bass side because i feel more difference than that will cause too much of a fan and make it difficult to play.

2.  I had the 7th fret as the stright one because it meant that it was slightly fanned at the nut and slightly fanned at the end of the fretboard - best of both worlds.  Oli went a different route and had the bridge straight which gives much more fanning at the nut.  This will improve the perfromance for lead but limit it for rhythm playing near the nut.  really this straight point can be out anywhere to favour a particular style of playing.


3.  Individual bridges are still not cheap but hopefully we will start seeing cheaper verison soon.   It costs a lot for 6 individual bridges which i need for mine.  On Oli's guitar he had the bridge straight so could use a normal bridge without problems - tbh, wish i had considered that