Angled Frets/Bridge Guitars Question(With Photo)

DulcetJones

This is a Lowden six string acoustic I found on Pinterest.  My question is: How hard is it to adjust to the fretboard when the frets are all slanting off on these angles?   

barry2tone

Octatonic's the chap to answer re. playability IIRC, but "fanned fret"  is the term often used to describe them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanned_Fret_Guitars

bertie

they're aimed at slappy tippy tap players arent they ?   :-S

BassBunny

I've played a couple of Dingwall Fanned Fret Basses and they were an absolute doddle to get used to IMHO. You only think about them being different for a very short time, then they are really natural to play.

barry2tone

Was listening to this one last night. 

http://www.theacousticmusicco.co.uk/mp3/10-Tippin-Staccato-complete-take-NP.mp3

Sporky

@TTony has a very handsome fanned fret electric - I seem to recall he said it was no trickier to play than a normal guitar.

TTony

Sporky said:

@TTony has a very handsome fanned fret electric - I seem to recall he said it was no trickier to play than a normal guitar.

Ah, go-on then, any excuse (etc)

It's not an extreme fanning - but it takes no real getting used to at all.  I'm not a 90notes-per-second widdler, so my fingers have plenty of time to get into position, and I play enough different guitars with different scale lengths, neck profiles, string heights, etc, that my fretting hand is used to being flexible!

WezV

Most people have no issue adjusting at all, 

the fan is more ergonomic as your arm naturally pivots from the elbow when moving up and down the fretboard

interestingly, i was looking at these lowdens this morning as i am considering a 9 (doubled on the high strings) string acoustic build at some point in the future

DulcetJones

I'll have to try one out if I see one in the stores around here.  I guess it's like anything, you work at it and it gets easier, but I really want to see what it feels like to make a full barre chord at the first fret.

octatonic

barry2tone said:

Octatonic's the chap to answer re. playability IIRC, but "fanned fret"  is the term often used to describe them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanned_Fret_Guitars

I don't have any guitars with Fan Fret but I've played a couple.

It required no adjustment to my technique.

I don't really see the point on a 6 string guitar though, unless you detuning the bass strings substantially.

digitalkettle

DulcetJones said:

I'll have to try one out if I see one in the stores around here.  I guess it's like anything, you work at it and it gets easier, but I really want to see what it feels like to make a full barre chord at the first fret.

Tried a Lowden just like that last year...it all felt perfectly natural: barres, the works...didn't even have to think about it. If anything, even though fan frets are a scale thing, it seemed ergonomically better...sounded great for standard tuning. I would love one

WezV

octatonic said:

I don't really see the point on a 6 string guitar though, unless you detuning the bass strings substantially.

anything that will benefit a 7th string will also benefit the other 6 for the same reasons.  the compromise  in scale length on parallel fretted guitars may become more obvious when you start adding more strings than normal, but it doesn't stop it already being there on a normal 6 string too.. 

i don't think 6 strings need fanned frets, plenty of 6 strings that work perfectly fine without them... but there is definitely a point to the system 

I made made 3 fanned frets, all 6 strings.  1 baritone, the other 2  do standard tuning pretty well.  obviously it pays to be mindfull of the difference in scale lengths.   Low E's work well up to about 26" with standard string sets, you start needing a heavy bottom set over that 

as for barres at the first fret. it depends.   if you go for a 2" difference in scale lengths and start with a bridge perpendicular to the centre line then all you fan is at the nut end and a barre chord will be difficult.   Most make the perp somewhere between the 5th and 12th fret.  making it closer to the nut will reduce the slant at that end .  I like it to be between 3 and 7 for this reason.   the nut is still slanted but its perfectly comfortable

Evilmags

The one time I played one it was excellent. No harder than a normal guitar and it sounded better in drop tunings.