Scalloping
A fretted fingerboard can be scalloped by "scooping out" the wood between each of the frets to create a shallow "U" shape. The result is a playing surface wherein the players' fingers come into contact with the strings only, and do not touch the fingerboard.
The process of "scalloping" a fingerboard well, if done by hand, is tedious work, usually done by careful filing of wood between the frets, and requires a large investment of time. Consequently, it is relatively expensive to have done. Generally scalloping of fingerboards is done by a special milling machine which has 22 or 24 (according to the neck dimensions and number of frets) wood cutting tools. This equipment saves time to the process and dimensional stability like scalloping the wood in the neck's radius same in all fret spaces.
Scalloped fingerboards are most commonly used by shred guitarists, most notably, Yngwie Malmsteen, who, like Ritchie Blackmore (of Deep Purple) uses scalloped fret boards, and had a signature model of Yngwie Malmsteen Stratocaster developed with Fender. Ibanez JEM series guitars, designed and played by Steve Vai, come standard with the last 4 frets scalloped. In 2008 Ibanez made available their E-Gen model, a Herman Li signature, which includes four scalloped frets (21st to 24th). Karl Sanders of the death metal band Nile also uses several guitars with scalloped frets, including several Deans, and KxK Guitars.
In the 1970s, English guitarist John McLaughlin played with Shakti (band), along with Indian violinist L. Shankar, using an acoustic guitar with a fully scalloped fretboard. McLaughlin explained that this feature increased the ease and range of string bends by eliminating friction between finger and fretboard. The scalloped fretboard also made possible the use of rapid, microtonal variation which is so important in Indian music, as exemplified by classical Indian Sitar music.
Experimental luthier Yuri Landman made an electric guitar for John Schmersal of Enon called the Twister with a partial scalloped neck for only the thin strings, (like little playground slides).
Other examples of lutes with scalloped fretboards include the South Indian veena and Vietnamized guitar (called đàn ghi-ta, lục huyền cầm, or ghi-ta phím lõm).The Japanese multi-instrumentalist and experimental musical instrument builder Yuichi Onoue made a deeply scalloped electric guitar for Vietnamese microtonal playing techniques.
Scalloping can be:
- Full, i.e. all frets from the first to the last are scalloped.
- Partial, when some of the top frets are scalloped for fast soloing. Popular examples include half scalloping (12th to the last fret, used by Kiko Loureiro of Angra, among others) or few top frets scalloping (19–24, 17–22, etc.), utilized by such guitarists as Steve Vai. When done by hand, sometimes fretboards can be scalloped half below D or G string, as in the case for Turkish luthier Kenan Turgut.
Note that filing the wood while scalloping also touches inlays, thus fingerboards with complex and intricate inlays usually aren't conducive to scalloping, as it would damage the artwork. Simple dot or block markers survive the procedure well.
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