• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Fanned fret question

Marcus Willett

Marcus Willett

Feb 8, 2005
3,636
1,053
Cowden, IL
Disclosures
Endorsing Artist: Bag End - Dean Markley - Thunderfunk
#1
OK, so as someone who is seriously considering a fanned fret 5 string, I have 2 questions that I have not seen addressed...at least not to the degree I would like. This is kinda directed at those guys who use fanned fret basses a lot and hopefully professionally.


1) After getting used to playing on a fanned-fret bass, how much does a "normal" bass feel weird afterwards? IOW, you get a fanned fret bass, and fall in love with it and now any non-fanned basses just don't feel right anymore and you really don't want to play on them anymore because you're diggin' the whole fanning thing too much

and,

2) Reading. I do a lot of reading gigs, and much of that depends on being very familiar with where your notes are without always being able to look at your fingerboard. After 20+ years of playing 34" scale basses, I'm quite accustomed to where the frets are...obviously if I were to start playing a fanned bass, the frets will now be in differing locations (albeit perhaps just a bit) than what I have been accustomed to for many years.

What impact does this have on reading? Do you now have to spend a lot more time looking at the neck? Do you find yourself being off at either the high or low end when going for what you're used to?

I guess I wonder how analogous it would be to my experience with the 5. Once I started playing 5 strings full-time, there was no going back. It feels normal now. I can pick up a 4 string and play it, but it feels odd and never quite as comfortable as I would like....I have to think about it more and can't relax and just play as much as I would like. My suspicion is that I might have a similar experience by going with fanned....?

Thanks for any input.
 
#3
the general opinion here is that someone who tries a fanned fret bass never wants to go back cos the fanned frets are so darn good.

having never owned nor played a fanned fret bass, and being almost sure there are no fanned fret basses in my country, im going to let someone else give you the low down on it.
 
#4
Marcus Willett said:
1) ... IOW, you get a fanned fret bass, and fall in love with it and now any non-fanned basses just don't feel right anymore

2) Reading. I do a lot of reading gigs, and much of that depends on being very familiar with where your notes are without always being able to look at your fingerboard.
Click to expand...
1) That didn't happen to me. It didn't take me more than half an hour of playing a friend's Dingwall AB1 to determine that I absolutely had to have one. But putting it down and picking up a parallel fretted bass wasn't like driving a Ferrari and then driving home in a Ford Escort. Far from it, in fact. Like any two basses they are different animals, they just happen to have an extra difference. I have a JO5 in my lap and a smile on my face as I type this. :)

2) Aside from missing the low C a couple times I didn't have any problems playing without looking. A lot of people who have posted about playing Dingwalls for the first time have said that if it's weird to deal with at first, that feeling stops as soon as you look away from the frets. I'd agree with this. I did most of my playing without looking at the neck and it seemed very natural.
 
#5
I recently had the pleasure of playing a beautiful Dingwall... my first 'fanned fret' experience.

The good news... it literallly took zero time to get used the to fanned fret system with the left hand fingering. It's a non issue to me. I was surprised at how similar it felt to standard frets. So, IME, it's not an issue.

The bad news..... 1) I REALLY do not like the bridge design that the fan frets require... the extreme slant. As one who plays relatively close to the bridge, there is no way (that I can see) to keep a standard distance from the bridge with your right hand.... that was very strange 2) I sure didn't hear that bass as having a better B string or E string sound than the other 'standard' basses we were playing at the small GTG (MTD, Sadowsky, Celinder, etc., etc.). It sounded great, but so did all the other basses.

In balancing the above, I have lost all interest in this concept personally.
 
#6
I have my AB-1 and a bunch of regular fret basses. There's no trouble in switching back and forth at all. You're right though, the desire to use a regular bass just isn't there.

After a year and a half of playing fanned frets, I was in the studio, and ended up using my old Jazz bass for two days of sessions after not playing or any straight fret bass for for more than a year for any appreciable time. No adjustment time or problem hitting notes on the shorter scale.

Fanned frets shouldn't slow you down at all when it comes to your reading/playing skills. I don't spend my nights looking down. :) In fact, lots of the standard FF press tells you NOT to look down, that you'll be more comfortable and adjust faster if you let your fingers find the notes.
 
#7
Keep in mind that the "majority" of the frets on a fanned fret bass (Dingwall, for instance) are not shifted at all...or at least very little. The only place that you really see a difference is in the extreme lower and extreme upper registers. Most players do not play (at least frequently) in the extreme upper register, and as you've seen above, most players do not have the slightest issue making the transition to the system, which really isn't much of a transition at all. Hope that helps. :)
 
#9
I'm no pro, but i did recently make the move to a dingwall bass. best decision i could have made. it is an incredible instrument - string tension and clarity/depth of each string is fantastic. the pickups and controls are top quality.

no problems with the fanned frets - other than the 'stretch' mentioned for a low F on E, or C on B. The advantage for me (with small hands) is that i'm working on my left hand flexibility - which helps tons when i move to fretless - which is 35" scale - and was always a 'bit different' than my previous 34" fretted. I think the fanned frets match the angle of my fingers/hand/wrist all along the fingerboard.

so, i'm a happy camper with the dingwall and a turner renaissance fretless. two excellent instruments. now if only I was good enough to do them justice. well, i'm working on that.
 
#10
I borrowed an ABI from a friend while last summer. During that time, I did a few nights for an off-season musical revue that did require some reading.

This is where a true dedication to the fanned-fret system is required. Since the scale is longer and the frets are in unexpected places, the "muscle memory" you have that aids in interpreting and reading parts in real time is compromised. This only makes sense, because we've all done our woodshedding on parallel frets. Generally, I could "fluff" through the show - my biggest errors were not fully nailing the notes with my fretting hand because of the stretches involved. I've had none of these problems on a 35" scale bass with parallel frets, but a DW E string is 36.5" and the B is 37", which changes the lay of the land a little.

I had no issues going back to a regular 4 string bass, but my mindset is that I'll never fully quit playing a 4 string J Bass.

Ultimately, I think the technical problems I had could be overcome with time and consistent effort. To bolster this statement, I'm waiting on my own Dingwall now. The B string has amazing clarity, and for lack of a better term, seem to be in the same "envelope" as the other strings. It isn't muddy or muted sounding like many other B strings, and it has usable, in-tune notes above the 7th fret.

Admittedly, I don't make my living playing music anymore, but if I was a pro in Branson I'd get really comfortable with the fanned fret system before working with and for contractors and other musicians.
 
#11
Hey! I play in a Function band that works about 200 gigs a year, and I get plenty of last minute charts I have to read on the fly. I have been playing a Dingwall super J on that gig since February and there was literally NO transition time on the fanned fret system. That said, the Super J does not have the radical scale length of the 5 and 6 string instruments. If you have good technique you should experience the same. I occasionally go back to my P-bass for this gig, and I do not notice any difficulty in the transition.-tmax
 
#12
20db pad said:
Iif I was a pro in Branson I'd get really comfortable with the fanned fret system before working with and for contractors and other musicians.
Click to expand...

While I agree that would be ideal, it would never really happen for me. the most I could get would be maybe a week or 2.
 
#14
Well, I like Dingwall and I've been talking to them about the Super J for a while now, but still no answer on when the 5 will be ready...hopefully next spring.

One small problem tho: I am very used to 17mm spacing on my 5's and the Dingwall is not available with that spacing. I think they have 18mm.

I can do 18mm fine, but it's not my preference and doesn't feel as nice as 17mm (for me). So I'm in a bit of a quandary. Chris Stambaugh has built me a very nice J style 5 just how I like it, so that is an option I am considering as well.

Really, just at this point weighing pros and cons and seeing if fanned-fret is the way I wanna go or not. With the Dingwall (or Stambaugh for that matter) I would be looking at 33"-35", so it's not a huge amount of fanning, but that's what makes it appeal to me.
 
#15
1) no bother at all to switch back to parallel fret instruments. The biggest issue for me is all the strings dont feel like they have even tension, the frets make no difference at all. Even with the string tension issue, its not difficult at all to go back and forth.

2) shouldnt be an issue, if you trust your hands, and dont rely on your eyes anyhow...
 
#16
KJung said:
The bad news..... 1) I REALLY do not like the bridge design that the fan frets require... the extreme slant. As one who plays relatively close to the bridge, there is no way (that I can see) to keep a standard distance from the bridge with your right hand.... that was very strange 2) I sure didn't hear that bass as having a better B string or E string sound than the other 'standard' basses we were playing at the small GTG (MTD, Sadowsky, Celinder, etc., etc.). It sounded great, but so did all the other basses.

In balancing the above, I have lost all interest in this concept personally.
Click to expand...

+1, this is my feeling as well.
 
#17
To me, string tension is the only reason I prefer the fanned frets.

Ive heard basses sound as good or better than my Dingwall.

I've played basses that were as comfortable in every aspect (aside from string tension).

I've never played a bass that felt like all the strings were at an even tension, except my Dingwall. Playing other basses slows me down in the low end, and I dont get as consistant a tone because I dont control my pressure that easily. Well I do, the problem is my pressure is consistant, the strings arent and I dont adjust well.
 
#18
Switching between fanned and parallel frets - not a problem.

Reading charts - it's been mentioned that the fret slant only becomes noticeably pronounced in the extreme upper and lower registers, so the area where the majority of typical bass playing occurs - around the 3rd to 9th fret generally - isn't affected much at all. But I'd go a step further and say that the lower register, frets 0 through 5, still feel pretty natural to me. I have to be a lot more careful playing way up high than I do way down low. And we all know that the "money notes" that you find on practically all charts are not up there. I mean, you might be called on for a solo while on a reading gig, but then you're not gonna be reading those notes from a chart anyway.
 
#20
It really depends on the player. Some players can pick-up anything and sound great and some of us need our "comfort zone" and a certain amount of familiarity. I recently talked to a player that makes a living doing studio work in LA. He played a friend Dingwall some years ago and loved it but was put-off by the need to switch basses multiple times per session/day, all while reading HAIRY charts no doubt!
I don't make a living in the studio, nor do I have to read difficult charts often,if ever. My thinking years ago when I got my Dingwall was to avoid limiting myself. I remember thinking, "If I can switch between electric and upright I can do this, no problem". I make it a point to knock the dust off my other basses every so often and I usually blow a few clams up-top and down-low but I'm happy and the phone is ringing.

PS- ti KJung and Wilbyman:
I try to let my arm/hand mirror the bridge angle. It requires some pretty serious adjustments in the fingers but helps keep my elbow out and wrist less bent...I wear my bass fairly high and this has actually saved me some pain.
Cheers!
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back