Fan Fret has come home

GSPBASSES

You may remember a few years ago I posted some pictures of the fan fret bass I made, it was a prototype to see how to make a fan fret, also if the scale length I was going use worked plus being playable. The low "B" was 36"scale and the "G" was 34" scale. The perpendicular fret is the 12th. It was also a test for Wudtone finish, just a quick reminder what happened initially.

 The first attempt at Wudtone was okay, went on quite easily although it didn't take several weeks to apply. The bass went out on loan to band to see how it stood up to the rigours of being giged regularly. To be honest it was okay when I got it back. It definitely had signs of wear on the back of the neck and the back of the body. Although I was told the bass player treated it with  kid glove's, so it wasn't really a good test. I stripped off the Wudtone and refinished it, but putting on lots more finishing coats on. That was several years ago, it’s  been out on loan ever since's. I've now got it back and to be honest with you and I hate to say this the Wudtone has come back looking as good. The bass player who used it I'm told, did clean it after every gig, never ever wore anything that would scratch the back of the guitar, so I had a fairly easy life, but even so it's in very good nick.

 

I don't use Wudtone any more and haven't done for several years. I found the clear to be okay, but the dark colours to be total rubbish really blotchy very difficult to get on. And of course it meant dealing with Mr Wudtone.

 

For those of you who never saw the bass first time round here’s a breakdown of its components. The body is two-piece Swamp Ash not to light as I didn't want the bass to neck dive,with a Quilted Maple cap with a black veneer between the cap and the Swamp Ash. The neck is a five piece made up of two out of pieces of maple two black veneers and a flame maple centre. The fingerboard is rosewood, slab cut, not quarter sawn, the frets are JD 6100.

Tuners are BM's. Not sure what make the single string bridges are by think they come from Northwest supplies or somewhere like that, quite cheap, but do really good job. The electronics are all EMG, two 6 six string soap bars, the on-board preamp consists of, a master volume, pan, bass and treble cut and boost, plus a mid control with sweep. I've used a nine volt battery, but think it would have been better running it on 18 volts.

Edit  Is not the 12th fret that is perpendicular, it's the 9th.

rexter

The picture melts my brain - looks like an optical illusion!

MtB

Yeah, I think if it somehow came in to my hands I'd only play over the central 3 or 4 frets that look straight !  

MtB

Seriously though, how does a fan fret neck work?

Winny_Pooh

Thats a great looking bass

GSPBASSES

The same as any other neck, but possibly easier to play  particularly if you've only got small hands.

WezV

MtB said:

Yeah, I think if it somehow came in to my hands I'd only play over the central 3 or 4 frets that look straight !  

i enjoy shoving mine in peoples hands when they come around.   nobody really struggles for long... 30 seconds or so if that

they make more sense when in a playing position

TTony

WezV said:

MtB said:

Yeah, I think if it somehow came in to my hands I'd only play over the central 3 or 4 frets that look straight !  

i enjoy shoving mine in peoples hands when they come around.   nobody really struggles for long... 30 seconds or so if that

they make more sense when in a playing position

I was really quite wary when I specced mine (all those years ago), but @WezV is absolutely right, they're a lot easier to play than you'd think from looking at them.


So, a fanned fret, 5-string bass.  What are you going to do with it now @GSPbasses??

GSPBASSES

Maybe give it away, I'm off to the Chickenshed next weekend to see their Christmas show, and to me up with the guys in the music department, I will take the bass with me. However, I'm not sure if it's really suitable for them in that there are only two adults who play bass, they have there own basses, the other bass players are quite young and small. So possibly this is a bit big for them, also, nobody there plays 5 string. If it's not to big, I shall leave it there. But I have a feeling if they want more basses, they will want another P bass and a Jazz bass. So could be open to offers. If it's still around next year, and if any of your jam sessions are reasonably close to me I'll bringing it along. I also have a 7 string fan fret guitar out on loan, if that comes back from his travels in time, I shall bring that one along as well.

TTony

We should be arranging a Southern jam in the New Year - and you'd be very welcome to come along!

@Bridgehouse is on the case

thermionic

MtB said:

Seriously though, how does a fan fret neck work?

Same as any other neck. The frets divide the length of the vibrating into shorter lengths as you go up. It doesn’t matter if the scale length of each string is different as long as the distance between the frets are proportional. The 12fth fret lies exactly halfway between the nut and the bridge saddle for the E string and the G string, even though it’s at an angle.

Probably gives the luthier more headaches though, a bit more maths and geometry involved when marking out where to saw the slots!

merlin

That's astounding. I had no idea such a thing existed... you learn something everyday, and this forum really helps! 

WezV

thermionic said:

MtB said:

Seriously though, how does a fan fret neck work?

Same as any other neck. The frets divide the length of the vibrating into shorter lengths as you go up. It doesn’t matter if the scale length of each string is different as long as the distance between the frets are proportional. The 12fth fret lies exactly halfway between the nut and the bridge saddle for the E string and the G string, even though it’s at an angle.

Probably gives the luthier more headaches though, a bit more maths and geometry involved when marking out where to saw the slots!

Its not that difficult to get your head around.   One of those things that becomes clear when you start drawing it out

You pick a scale length for the 2 outside strings.   You decide where you want the centre of the fan to be, you join the dots.  or you use one of the fret calc programs to do it all for you.  

   The Novax patent for fanned-frets stated some rubbish about the frets theoretically meeting up at a single point if you extended them below the fretboard.   This is not-accurate, its not how Novax does it.  It doesn't actually intonate correctly.  A bit of misdirection perhaps.

The centre line of the fan is as important as the scale length choice, it can change the feel dramatically. 

I can get my head around the fretting fairly easily - its the headstock angles I still struggle with