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Fanned frets?

jworrellbass

jworrellbass

Commercial User
May 17, 2009
1,271
11
62
Colorado Springs CO
www.jworrellbass.com
Disclosures
Owner, builder: jworrellbass
#1
I had a guy ask me about a fanned fret bass, I've never tried, but I'm ready to mess up a few fingerboards to give it a shot. I thought I would use a 34" scale for the high end and a 36" for the low. Does the 12th fret run perpendicular (like a normal fingerboard) and the higher frets and lower ones fan away? Does anyone have an easy proven way to pull it off? Do you mind sharing?:confused:
 
#3
Here's one of mine...

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I believe the closest to perpendicular is 7th but I don't think any of them are 100%.

I think the best way to do it is lay out your outside strings' fret positions then "connect the dots".

Or you can fretfind it for each of the different scale lengths and lay it out.

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#4
Here's how I'm planning to do mine - I'm using a fret distance calculator to find my LONGEST and SHORTEST scales only. I'll map out the scale length on the long string and also on the short string, then "connect the dots" to generate the fret line.

I'm doing it in a CAD program, but on paper:

Draw out, full scale, the fingerboard and all the strings (4, 5, 6, etc) as you would do for any bass guitar, pretending the nut is perpendicular to the strings. Use the longest scale length of the bass for the nut location.

Now you have a full-size image of your bass strings and fingerboard design.

Choose a fret to be the "perpendicular" fret. I'm using the 7th
fret in my example.

Use one of the fret calculators suggested (Fretfind, etc.) to determine the distance from the nut (on the lowest/longest string) to the 7th fret. Be sure to use that string's scale length! Measure that distance out as precisely as you can ALONG the "line" representing the lowest string. Mark a thin mark at this position.

Next, draw a line that's at a right angle to the centerline of the fingerboard which also crosses the "7th fret" mark on the low string. Draw that line long enough so that it crosses all of the strings.

Use the fret calculator to find the fret distances for the shortest scale length on the bass. Measure carefully from the 7th fret back towards the nut the distance computed for that scale length. Again, measure along the string line, and mark a small tick mark.

Connect the tick mark on the long string and the short string at the nut end with a line. You now have the nut and the 7th fret marked out. Notice that the string spacing at the nut will be slightly different than you originally planned - the shorter strings will be a tad bit further apart than you planned originally, but it shouldn't affect playability (I presume, anyway).

Use the fret distance calculator for the longest string now, and measure/mark fret positions for as many frets as you want. Go back and use the calculated fret positions for the shortest string next, and measure along that string (starting from that string's nut position) and mark all the fret positions.

Connect the dots again using a straightedge, and you've marked out all the frets.

I plan to cut out the "fingerboard" part of the template and adhere it directly to the fingerboard wood, use a fret slotting hand saw and a block of wood as a guide, and then just cut the fret slots as carefully as I can, lining up the line drawn on the paper and the blade of the saw before I start cutting.

I believe this method will compensate for the non-parallel string spacing, but I'm concerned that if the string centers don't align with the long "string lines" I drew on my template that my intonation could be off a bit.

If you bothered to read this far and you've done multi-scale fingerboards before, could you comment on my method?

Thanks - hope this helps!
 
#6
Allen VA, I will have to read that a few times..lol.. If it works let me know. I got it now. In other words if the scale is 37" on the low b and the scale on the high g (5 strings) is 34" make sure that the 7th fret is perpendicular. Then work both ends nut and bridge and draw lines to connect the lines. I'm I making sence? What about pickup locations?
 
#10
Here is my LeCompte and my cat. The LeCompte is 34-36" ~ the cat was sleeping.
MikeKeyboard2.jpg
 
#11
Well my favorite for a 6er is 36-32 with the 12th close to parallel. Personally I'm very happy with the even tension of that scale. But be warned the lower frets can get quite extreme.
I just took the two outside scales and connected the dots.
You will have a tough time going back to parallel frets, and I guess the getting used to period depends on how long you have been playing really. It did take me longer than the usual oh it will take 5 minutes, I call shenanigans on that statement. :) At least it did for me, by a couple gigs though it felt like home.
Good luck,
Dirk
 
#12
jworrellbass said:
Allen VA, I will have to read that a few times..lol.. If it works let me know. I got it now. In other words if the scale is 37" on the low b and the scale on the high g (5 strings) is 34" make sure that the 7th fret is perpendicular. Then work both ends nut and bridge and draw lines to connect the lines. I'm I making sence? What about pickup locations?
Click to expand...

Yeah...after I wrote it and looked at it, I thought "jeez that's going to be hard to read". Oh well.

I don't believe its critical to set the 7th fret as the parallel fret - it's probably "personal taste", but since most of us can't try a bunch of different ones out to see what we like, I just picked a spot on the fingerboard where my fingers felt naturally "straight", and that's the 7th fret for me (and my smallish hands). I'm considering a 35" to 32" scale bass, again because of my smaller hands, I'm hoping that's going to be more comfortable for me.

As for the pickups - you can draw out your template all the way to the bridge - the bridge will be angled of course - and you can put the centerlines of the pickups parallel to the bridge. Some (regular standard) basses have slightly angled pickups (See: Roscoe LG series, or Warwick Thumb 5-strings). You can do this too, with the multiscale bass.

My building goes slow as a snail, so I'll let you know in about 4 years how my project turns out :smug:
 
#13
Allen_VA said:
Here's how I'm planning to do mine - I'm using a fret distance calculator to find my LONGEST ..........
If you bothered to read this far and you've done multi-scale fingerboards before, could you comment on my method?

Thanks - hope this helps!
Click to expand...


That's one seriously long way of doing it. Fretfind's advanced screen will let you scale out a fanned fret fretboard and print it out 1:1 scale for you on paper. Here's the way I do my fanned fingerboards.

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=435497
 
#14
I really want to thank all of you who gave your input. Bass builders are the best! I've done construction for 25 years and anytime you asked a question the responce was a closely guarded secret. Update. I just layed out the scale. 36" on the low b and 32" on the high c (6 string) 7th fret perpendicular. I double checked each of the inner strings scale using the 24th as 3/4 of the scale, 12th fret as half way and 5th fret 1/4 of the scale. They seem to be off a bit. Will the bridge adjustment take care of that? I do know that the low b on a 34" scale is acually 34 1/2" after the set up is done. Am I on the right tract, or did I do it wrong?
 
#15
jworrellbass said:
I really want to thank all of you who gave your input. Bass builders are the best! I've done construction for 25 years and anytime you asked a question the responce was a closely guarded secret. Update. I just layed out the scale. 36" on the low b and 32" on the high c (6 string) 7th fret perpendicular. I double checked each of the inner strings scale using the 24th as 3/4 of the scale, 12th fret as half way and 5th fret 1/4 of the scale. They seem to be off a bit. Will the bridge adjustment take care of that? I do know that the low b on a 34" scale is acually 34 1/2" after the set up is done. Am I on the right tract, or did I do it wrong?
Click to expand...

This might be getting back to what Erikbojerik said earlier - I didn't build "compensation" (slight increase in length of lower strings) into my way of doing it. The saddles should have enough adjustment in them to compensate and set your intonation, but it might be worth searching TB for some more info on how much compensation should be added, just in case.

I too love the openness of the bass builders in this forum for sharing their ideas and techniques.

Cheers!
 
#17
Phil Mailloux said:
That's one seriously long way of doing it. Fretfind's advanced screen will let you scale out a fanned fret fretboard and print it out 1:1 scale for you on paper. Here's the way I do my fanned fingerboards.

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=435497
Click to expand...

I used it today and printed out a couple 1:1 full-size fingerboards and they measure pretty darn spot-on after printing them out. Hopefully I can make some wood chips soon!

Yeah man, I was really going around my a$$ to get to my elbow the way I did it first. I used the "Nonparallel Frontend" link. It was a tad tricky at first, but I think it's going to work out great.
 
#19
Dirk Diggler said:
Well my favorite for a 6er is 36-32 with the 12th close to parallel. Personally I'm very happy with the even tension of that scale. But be warned the lower frets can get quite extreme.
I just took the two outside scales and connected the dots.
You will have a tough time going back to parallel frets, and I guess the getting used to period depends on how long you have been playing really. It did take me longer than the usual oh it will take 5 minutes, I call shenanigans on that statement. :) At least it did for me, by a couple gigs though it felt like home.
Good luck,
Dirk
Click to expand...

Have you tryed fanned frets with other than the 12th being parallel? My original idea was like yours. The 36" scale and 32" are the same scale just longer/ shorter. The 12 fret as parallel should bring the nut and bridge 2" shorter on the high string. But after reading Allen-Va idea the 7th does seem to a natural place for your hand. I'll lay it out and look.
 

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